Max Cooper

I had a modern classical/electronica mix from a friend (JamBon) which I had been listening to a lot, and after a weekend away the original of this track was really stuck in my head. At some point I clicked that it sounded just like the style of another friend - Hiatus, and on checking, it was him! So I got straight on email to him asking if I could have the parts, and I even got started on the remix before they arrived by buying the mp3 and starting to lay some ideas around that - When it's on I find it's best to go with it. It was a really enjoyable remix to do given how beautiful the original parts are, my mix is quite similar really, as I couldn't improve on it melodically, I've just tried to add some of my own flavour and twists.

Hiatus - Third - Max Cooper Remix

Ripperton - A Skilift Upstairs The Sleeping City - Max Cooper Remix

This is the original remix I did for Phil, of his track - Church Organ Nightmare, before we turned it into the collaborative mix that was released earlier this year. This version of the mix is out now on an amazing PKR package along with mixes from Jamie Jones, Green Velvet, Xhin, Marc Houle, Hrdvsion, Jesper Dahlback and Egbert...it's a monster!

Beatport> http://www.beatport.com/release/series-number-001/834991

Phil Kieran - Church Organ Nightmare - Max Cooper Remix

Michael Nyman &amp; David McAlmont - Secrets Accustions &amp; Charges - Max Cooper Deconstruction/Reconstruction

I wrote these two remixes as a pair, starting only with two audio files, one orchestral part of all the strings, piano etc, and one vocal part of David McAlmont singing. It wasn't easy to tame the parts into an electronic format that I was happy with, so I opted to cut everything up into tiny segments and reconstruct my own track which ended up really different from the original - my "Deconstruction" mix. Then I was faced with the problem of exactly that, that the remix sounded nothing like the original, so I then tried to reconstruct back to the original from the parts I had made - my "Reconstruction" mix. It was an interesting production exercise I guess, not an easy remix job, but hopefully it yielded something interesting.

It's out now on Last Night on Earth!

And Nick Cobby has amazed me with his video for the tracks, it's really amazing - He invited people to be 3d mapped at his studio, and then cut there digitised face footage perfectly to the segments of audio I used to create the music - you gotta watch it!! &gt;&gt; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khlLc7NNOok

Michael Nyman - Secrets - Max Cooper Reconstruction

Michael Nyman - Secrets - Max Cooper Deconstruction

Agoria - Panta Rei - Max Cooper Remix

Halls- 'Roses For The Dead' (Max Cooper remix)

This remix had some really nice vocal and guitar parts, but when I combined them with my drums it didn't really work for me. So I decided to create a long build with the original parts, which finally drops into a more stripped down form to try and maintain the quality of the original elements. It's a bit of a combination of deepness with euphoria, which I hope still works, I guess I'll find out what you think about it soon enough!

D/R/U/G/S - The Source Of Light - Max Cooper Remix

BRAIDS are one of my favourite bands, so when I had the chance to work with them I jumped on it. The vocals were the starting point, which I layered and used to generate a general feeling also in fitting with the lyrics, which then defined how I built the rest of the tracks around them. The first one from the EP is "Pleasures", for which I wanted to make something positive and warming, with nice straightforward drums and nothing too harsh in terms of builds and drops, just a delicate flow to give a pleasurable listening experience, hopefully!

Max Cooper Feat. BRAIDS - Pleasures

The concept for this one is about our nature as deterministic biological machines, unable to escape from our natural responses and behaviour finely tuned by millions of years of evolution, and now quite out of sync with the modern world we live in. The lyrics "I can't stop it" were the starting point for the concept, and I attempted to create a robotic-like sequences from chopped BRAIDS vocals to further present the idea.

Two more points to note, this one comes with an amazing remix from Ghosting Season, which I recommend you check out straight away! And also this track is available in interactive music video App form for iPhone and iPad on the App store!

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/automaton-max-cooper/id547916685?mt=8

Max Cooper Feat. BRAIDS - Automaton

Thank you!

…for all your listens and support and coming to events and voting and general good vibes throughout the year leading to these recent top RA live act / Beatport top artist of 2012 / XLR8R top 10 most popular podcast malarkies. 

This track is one of my best tracks planned for release next year, a collaboration with one of my favourite songwriters and vocalists, The Slow Revolt.  

Max

PS this was a free download over Xmas 2012, but that's over now.  If you keep watching facebook or join the email list at maxcooper.net, there'll be a few more freebies coming this year.

Max Cooper Feat. The Slow Revolt - Only You

This was an attempt to make an enveloping wash of sounds to drown in. It started as a techno track but I realised it worked best without drums to get down to what it's really all about. It was released on Traum a while ago, but I just stumbled across it today and it seemed to suit my mood so I thought I better put it on soundcloud.

The artwork is a scan of a dried flower by my friend Ben Slater (http://www.behance.net/benslater), which I adjusted the colours on to make all saturated and purple. It's from the same set of scans that Ben used to make my Expressions EP artwork - still my favourite release artwork to date for sure.

Max Cooper - Sea Of Sound - Ambient Rework

Iketa came to my attention last year, and the more I delved into his work, the more amazing music I discovered. So when the chance came along to remix something, I chose his track Burn, which I love, and tried to put my own interpretation on it. The original was already so close to perfection melodically, that I found I couldn't do a lot to improve it. So instead I focused on trying to enhance what was already there, using contrasting sections of soundscapes and detailed sparse beats, and adding builds of saturation to exaggerate each melodic element. I found it was a really nice remix to work on, I hope you like it!

Iketa - Burn - Max Cooper Remix

I had a lot of fun working on this remix, mainly because Marc and Ken provided some great parts to work with. I messed around with chopping up the main riff so that it plays different versions out of each channel to give an interesting left/right effect, every so often hitting the same pattern on both channels and suddenly jumping to the middle as a result. Then it disintegrates and recombines in new form during the break before finally reaching the original riff on the main drop....I've been playing it out a lot, seems to do the job nicely in the clubs....all about the bassline as often is the way with my stuff!

Marc Romboy And Ken Ishii - Seiun - Max Cooper Remix (out now)

I went pretty minimal on this one, no hi-hats, and pretty much no drums actually, just a kick and much later into the track a snare comes in.....There was something about the simple repetitive 2 note melody hits and chords I landed on that just seemed to work without needing anything much else, well hopefully it works for other people too and not just me. It's been going down really well in the clubs at least, it seems to make people clap for some reason, maybe because it's so simple and kick focused rhythmically, it's got a bit of a marching stomp feel.

I stripped out most of the parts from the original, and focused on the great pads and vocal sweeps, which seemed to lead to the melodic idea somehow. It was one of those remixes which flowed nice and easily, not too much conscious thought required, I just let it flow out.

I made an edit of an old video to fit the track too, full details about that on the youtube link:

http://youtu.be/pXdoDtQlvDE

Buy on Beatport

Nick Warren - Devil's Elbow - Max Cooper Remix (out now)

For my new EP on Traum I've done a couple of collaborative tracks with Nicolas Bougaieff (one of the founders of Liine). Nick had some great melodic ideas and a nice operator patch which we used to build two tracks around. This first one, Ellipse, has lots of shuffle and a simple groove to focus attention on the meandering riff at forefront. It's a little different from my usual, a bit of an experiment, hopefully some people will like it!

Release date 1st April on Traum, digital + 12"

Max Cooper and Nicolas Bougaieff - Ellipse

This track is contained on the Movements EP, where each track is themed by movement through a different medium. The concept I had in mind this time was a summer meadow, with lots of warmth and activity and detail of all natural processes going on, and a feeling of movement though the space. I have no idea how well that idea of mine translates into the piece of music for you, but hopefully it works in some way (your interpretation is more important than my concept really).

Andrew Brewer (Whiskas FX) has made a video for this one with some abstracted meadows combined with moire patterns, it's a beauty!....can't wait to get that out in the next few days.

(This is just a clip of the track btw, if you want the full length version it will be out 1st April!)

Max Cooper - Meadows

The EP is about movements through different mediums, this one being about movements through walls of sound. So I've put a really simple beat structure on there with a maddeningly repetitive two note acid style riff to try and lull people into some sort of brain dead state before they hit the wall, and exit out the other side wondering what just happened. That's the idea anyway, a track of maximised contrasts, it works great in a club, maybe not so much of home listener, see what you think anyway!

Max Cooper - Walls

Continuing with the theme of the Movements EP, this one is about movement through fractured space. We used Nick's great operator patch again (the same one as for Ellipse), and Nick came up with this nice riff. I mainly just made lots of strange noises and worked on the drums, automation, arrangement, details and overall feel, trying to keep it pretty simple and too the point - that is a nice flowing club style with plenty of broken reality moments.

This one has a really straight groove, with all the drums quite quantised to a linear grid, while Ellipse uses some of the same elements with a heavy shuffled groove - you can hear the really different club feel that results in the two tracks.


Max Cooper and Nicolas Bougaieff - Fracture (out now)

This is a shortened down version of a remix I did for MMOTHS recently. If you want the full length (mixable) version then you can get that from here as part of an excellent free remix package: http://mmothsmusic.com/diariesremixes

It was a nice remix to work on, with some great field recordings, a lovely simple piano riff, and some looped vocal samples which all slotted nicely into the new structure I wanted to go with - something a bit more club compatible than the original, but still hopefully carrying the feeling.

I messed around with the field recordings in the Monolake Granulator a bit, to get some subtle glitch/randomness in there, but other than that I went pretty straight on the arrangement, just gradually introducing the layers and adding a new synth to punctuate the peak, and a new bassline and chord variation.

The idea with the field recording/glitched intro section was to try and make something non-melodic and a bit harsh and cold, in attempted polar contrast to the warmth of the main melodic section and enveloping bass ie I wanted try and make the bleak part emphasise and accentuate the nice part.

So, anyway, here it is, as a free download for all.

Max Cooper

Lucasaliasfreeman