Pretty Cool Monkeys 

NT News Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. 

Ben Langford 30/05/08 

It's not a great thing to say, but if the electro-garage band Cooperblack weren't in Darwin they'd be stars. The band will draw a fair crowd to the launch of their new CD "My Art is Bleeding" tonight. But with a unique sound so confident it borders on the crazy, and uber-modern blend of electronics, chords and high pitched languages, the hip cats of Melbourne or Sydney would pack into clubs to hear them play. Luckily for Darwin, the band's leading light, singer-songwriter Jeremy Conlon, has no plans to move away from his adopted hometown. "My Art is Bleeding" is a more rocking affair than previous Cooperblack efforts, a fact that Conlon puts down to much of it being recorded live. With Simon Kormendy on synthesizer and his madly wailing theramin, this is a local band reaching the heights of their powers. And the influence of the German drummer Oliver Budack is clear, with the album's opening track "Affen Titten Geil" among the more bizzare points. the song's title translates as "horny tits monkey", which apparently is a popular way for old-school Germans to say "that's really cool".
credits
released 01 March 2008 

jeremy conlon - voice, bass, keys, beats 
oliver budack - drums, voice, guitar 
simon kormendy - synth, theramin, electronics 
guest appearances from 
jayme capurso - telephone suggestion on “Scary On The Radio (pen and mouse mix)” 
gulliame vetu - french sample on “Goth” 


all words by jeremy conlon except track 9 “Pop Corn Girl” lyrics by simon kormendy 
track 8 “Goth” written by Barnaby Ward - Baterz 
track 9 “Brown Bird” written by Leon Guymala SFM Publishing administered by SonyATV 
tracks 1 - 7 and 10 - 11 2008 by cooperblack 

all recordings © 2008 cooperblack - jeremy conlon 
all rights resverved. any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording 
in any manner is prohibited 


cooperblack would like to thank happy yess, music nt 
skinnyfish music, nabarlek, horsetrank, all the “2 cats 1 hat”, jess, 
zeb, kris, debbie, holty, top end sounds, kerry atkins, cal, ed, 
shannon, hatty, amy, elendil, liam, phill, colin, liam m and many more... 


engineered and produced by jeremy conlon at 
cooperblack’s studio and the music nt room 2008 
cover art used by permission of the artist: david collins “mexican wrestler”

Brown Bird

Affen Titten Geil

Six new wave melancholic, electro-pop songs form Capsule, the latest EP release from prolific Australian music producer and composer, Cooperblack (aka Jeremy Conlon). 

Moving away from the muscular, studio-based dance of Return To the Big Eyes (2015), here Cooperblack infuses his unique synthetic pop with a plethora of dark, moody “found sounds” gathered from an extended sojourn to wintery Europe – the frozen polar opposite of his desert home in Yuendemu, Northern Territory. 

Composed and gathered where the sun has limited potential, Capsule’s distinct sound was ultimately sculpted and shaped beneath the harsh, endless sun of Central Australia. It’s the perfect counterpoint – and combination. 

From ice-breaking ferry rides in Helsinki to lonely flag poles clinking in the icy Berlin wind, these found sounds blend into deep electronic ambient soundscapes. Layered over Cooperblack’s deeply personal lyrics, these sonic elements of ‘random coincidence’ add a particularly haunting quality to his pop-driven compositions. 

It’s all about space, and place. 

Synths, drum machines, distant voices and the harsh European winter create the distinct sound of Capsule, another excellent and unique musical foray by one of Australia’s most progressive musicians.
credits
released April 2, 2017 

All songs by Jeremy Conlon 
Produced by Jeremy Conlon 
Additional piano performance by Heli Valkama (Helsinki) on Suomenlinna 
Recorded in Central Australia, Berlin and Helsinki. 

Mastered by Kris Keogh at ZZAAPP HQ 
Cover image by Zoe Curren 
Berlin promotional images by Megan Spencer 

Special thanks to Megan, Oliver, Kris, Helli, Zoe, Manon, Wide Open Space, PAW Media, Chloe and Stellar Sea.

Play On Forever

Embryo

In a home studio in one of the remotest parts of Australia (Yuendumu), Jeremy Conlon a.k.a. Cooperblack, is busy bringing his latest collaboration to life. 'With Knives' is from the EP Reagoivat Seed. It's a collaboration with Finnish Artist Heli Valkama. Heli created 5 images and these images lead to the response for the lyrical content, Streamed and unedited as they appeared on paper. The words used in each song on the EP relate to each of the five images. 

Produced by Cooperblack. Mastered by Left Of Elephant Sound.

This Promise (A Spoken Word)

Flags Wave (Flags Fall)

Suomenlinna

The Degradation Suite 

Australian composer, DJ and electronic artist Cooperblack (Jeremy Conlon) releases ‘The Degradation Suite’, a six-track meditation on ‘the end of the world’. 

Dense with bleak electronica, awash with cavernous field recordings and drenched in despondent live cello, ‘The Degradation Suite’ sounds like a requiem and feels like an epitaph: for the human race, for the environment and for life on earth as we know it. 

Originally from Adelaide, now based in Alice Springs, classically-trained composer, Jeremy Conlon has lived in the Northern Territory for the best part of 15 years, largely in the Central Desert Region. Knowing first-hand the fragility of sustaining life in the most isolated of places, he was inspired to write a musical response to “the end of the world”. 

“Central Australia is a place where most of the resources come from somewhere else,” he says. “This is an artistic response to what happens when they suddenly stop coming in: the impact and how humans react to the environment changing. It’s a soundtrack for a disaster film that hasn’t been written yet.” 

For his tenth major recording, Conlon worked with talented collaborators. Alice Springs multi-instrumentalist, looper, singer and ‘NT Song of the year Finalist’ XAVIA fills Conlon’s synth-driven score with frail and vulnerabile cello playing, deepening the album's anxious emotional texture. Veteran engineer Ross Cockle at Melbourne’s Sing Sing Recording Studios mastered the album, a process Conlon found very rewarding. 

“Ross was recommended to me as someone who would have an understanding of the sound I was after,” he says, “and of the potential uses of the music once completed. We had some really good conversations about the vision I saw in the music, what I wanted to do with it, and the general inspiration for the album.” 

Achingly beautiful, it also kind of hurts to listen. While Beautiful But Dangerous is title of Track 3, it also perfectly sums up the aural effect of listening to - and taking in - this epic, atmospheric journey into the heart of darkness. It’s as hauntingly memorable as any of the greatest contemporary SF film scores - think the Solaris reboot, Moon and Under The Skin. 

As desert dance and music festival-goers already know, Jeremy Conlon is an exciting musical talent and live performer. 

You’ve been warned: travelling across 15 years and vast distances to get here, 'The Degradation Suite' is just as this unique Australian composer wants it to be. 
credits
released October 30, 2018 

Written and Produced by Jeremy Conlon 
Recorded and Mixed at Left of Elephant Sound - Alice Springs 
Mastered by Ross Cockle at Sing Sing Recording Studio - Melbourne 
Cover art by Juliana A Menjura and Jeremy Conlon 
Artist Image by Juliana A Menjura 
Cello performed by Xavia Nou 
xaviamusic.bandcamp.com 
Press Release and Bio by Megan Spencer

1500 Feet

3 Part Human

This Background Stain

End Of Communications

Cloud Potential

Beautiful But Dangerous

Australian composer, DJ and electronic artist Cooperblack (Jeremy Conlon) releases ‘The Degradation Suite’, a six-track meditation on ‘the end of the world’. 

Dense with bleak electronica, awash with cavernous field recordings and drenched in despondent live cello, ‘The Degradation Suite’ sounds like a requiem and feels like an epitaph: for the human race, for the environment and for life on earth as we know it. 

Originally from Adelaide, now based in Alice Springs, classically-trained composer, Jeremy Conlon has lived in the Northern Territory for the best part of 15 years, largely in the Central Desert Region. Knowing first-hand the fragility of sustaining life in the most isolated of places, he was inspired to write a musical response to “the end of the world”. 

“Central Australia is a place where most of the resources come from somewhere else,” he says. “This is an artistic response to what happens when they suddenly stop coming in: the impact and how humans react to the environment changing. It’s a soundtrack for a disaster film that hasn’t been written yet.”

For his tenth major recording, Conlon worked with talented collaborators. Alice Springs multi-instrumentalist, looper, singer and ‘NT Song of the year Finalist’ XAVIA fills Conlon’s synth-driven score with frail and vulnerabile cello playing, deepening the album's anxious emotional texture. Veteran engineer Ross Cockle at Melbourne’s Sing Sing Recording Studios mastered the album, a process Conlon found very rewarding. 

“Ross was recommended to me as someone who would have an understanding of the sound I was after,” he says, “and of the potential uses of the music once completed. We had some really good conversations about the vision I saw in the music, what I wanted to do with it, and the general inspiration for the album.” 

Achingly beautiful, it also kind of hurts to listen. While Beautiful But Dangerous is title of Track 3, it also perfectly sums up the aural effect of listening to - and taking in - this epic, atmospheric journey into the heart of darkness. It’s as hauntingly memorable as any of the greatest contemporary SF film scores - think the Solaris reboot, Moon and Under The Skin. 

As desert dance and music festival-goers already know, Jeremy Conlon is an exciting musical talent and live performer. 

You’ve been warned: travelling across 15 years and vast distances to get here, 'The Degradation Suite' is just as this unique Australian composer wants it to be. 
credits

Cooperblack

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