JOIN MAX'S E-LIST

BIOGRAPHY

In an interview on the influential modifyer blog, Max Cooper described how his emotive, melodic techno is an attempt to render different levels of emotion into sound. It's this approach that created his breakthrough track, Harmonish Serie on Traum Schallplatten - a buzzing, ruminative piece that was a "heavy rotation" track for Raveline, a top 5 hit in Germany's vinyl charts, and which has already passed 35,000 views on YouTube.

Harmonish Serie, and its Nov 09 followup, Stocastisch Serie, are part of a planned series of releases that are influenced by Cooper's other defining interest, science. A PhD geneticist, in 2009 he divided his time between genetics research at University College London, and music and live performance.

Describing his approach to writing music as "multidimensional beat matching, but where joining up the feeling is an important as working out the beats," Max has had releases on more than 20 labels in 5 years, from Germany's Traum and Autist to the UK's veryverywrongindeed and other European labels like Perc Trax, Evolved, Naked Lunch and 54Music, as well as collaborating with visual artist Whiskas fX to create a set of astounding abstract videos for the 'Serie' releases.

The last two years have also seen him increasingly in demand as a remixer, with 2009 seeing new remixes for Williamsburg darlings Au Revoir Simone and Peaches, European dancefloor acts like Extrawelt, Perc and Dominik Eulberg - and this alongside a set of new remixes to be revealed in 2010 - alongside new developments for his new live show, first premiered at Zukunf, Brussels.

But Cooper's DJing still continues. He started as a hip-hop DJ and fan of DJ Craze and Q-Bert, and still performs occasional turntablist sets at his 7-year residencies at UK clubs like Firefly and Stealth. But since Max started producing in 2006, he has irresistibly moved toward a less-is-more approach to writing music. It's an approach that worked. His first EPs for Evolved records quickly became some of the top-selling releases on that label, with his first release on Firefly Recordings, FRANK, marking his first serious inroads into Beatport's charts - with the followup "the Shufflebox EP" on Autist peaking in the top 10 of the minimal chart.

In 2009, Max’s signing to German Label Traum Schallplatten then saw his productions really take off with the massive Harmonisch EP, as well as remixes for Extrawelt and Dominik Eulberg. He's also appeared twice on the UK's Radio1 dance show and was named a "Future Hero" by the UK's biggest dance-music magazine, Mixmag.

Production, and Cooper's ability to perform his productions live, is the key to his music. "If I get a feeling about a track, I drop everything and get straight to the studio," Cooper says. "I often start something new at 3AM on a Tuesday morning. If I reflect on an idea until the next day, it's diluted".

And the key to the productions is emotion. "I don’t have any formal music theory training," he says, "though I did have my mother's piano lessons as regular background noise when I was growing up. In some ways I think it could be useful not to be trained in music theory, as it means there are no preconceptions about how to construct a chord progression. It's easier to focus on matching the emotions in the head with the emotions that you want to come out of the monitors..."

KEY TRACKS

DISCOGRAPHY

Extrawelt - Mit Liese - Max Cooper Remix [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Stochastisch Serie [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Mnemonic [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Automnemonic [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Stochastisch Serie - Leeks Remix [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Mnemonic - Maetrik Remix [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Mnemonic - Microtrauma Remix [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Inhale Exhale [Veryverywrongindeed]
Max Cooper - Exhale Inhale [Veryverywrongindeed]
Max Cooper - Inhale Exhale - Spektre Remix [Veryverywrongindeed]
Max Cooper - Inhale Exhale - Tim Sheridan Remix [Veryverywrongindeed]
Max Cooper - i - remixes - 5 track remix EP [Traum Schallplatten]
Dan Cat - Winterslow - Max Cooper Remix [Catzmusik]
Granlab - Unknown - Max Cooper Remix [Broque]
N'to - Ekphrasis - Max Cooper Remix [Wunderbar]
Pollyy - Pins and Needles - Max Cooper Remix [Shrink Records]
Bigger Than Jesus - Check Point Charlie - Max Cooper Remix [54 Music]
Gary Beck - Numb - Max Cooper Remix [Perc trax]
Marco Dassi - Narcotraffic - Max Cooper Remix [MCGroove Black]
Tim Sheridan - Villain - Max Cooper Remix [Veryverywrongindeed]
Jill Bellac - Solid - Max Cooper Remix [Firefly Recordings]
Max Cooper - Symphonica [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Wasp [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - The end of reason [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - The end of reason - Perc Remix [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Symphonica - Marco Dassi Remix [Traum Schallplatten]
Dominik Eulberg - Sansula - Max Cooper Remix [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Harmonisch Serie [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Harmonisch Serie - Kanio Remix [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Compact Yourself [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - Compact Yourself - Ito Remix[Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - i (Extended) [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - i (Compacted) [Traum Schallplatten]
Extrawelt - Im Garten Von Eben - Max Cooper Remix [Traum Schallplatten]
Max Cooper - The Brazilian Fallacy [Flux Recordings]
Max Cooper - Tinderbox [Autist Records]
Max Cooper - The Fuckwit [Autist Records]
Max Cooper - Shufflecrush [Autist Records]
Max Cooper - Attention Deficit Disorder [Autist Records]
C System - Playing With Dogs - Max Cooper Remix [Flux Recordings]
Celtec Twinz - The Grass Is Always Greener - Max Cooper Remix [Naked Lunch]
Spangled Ballet - Destruction Friday - Max Cooper Remix [Venga]
Will Bailey & Mikey Hook - Screwball - Max Cooper Remix [Simma]
Max Cooper - Waste Gash [2-Hype Records]
Max Cooper - FRANK [Firefly Recordings]
Max Cooper - Upside Out [Censorzio Italia]
Robotwon - Sabre - Max Cooper Remix [Livein Music]
Max Cooper - The Blind Watchmaker [Shrink Records]
Max Cooper - Cartesian Theatre [Shrink Records]
Max Cooper - The Blind Watchmaker - Casiogrand Remix [Shrink Records]
Max Cooper - Upside Out [Konnekt Records]
Max Cooper - Upside Out - Max Hedroom Remix [Konnekt Records]
Celtec Twinz - The Grass Is Always Greener - Max Cooper Remix [Parallel 125]
Max Cooper - Ergo [Evolved Records]
Max Cooper - Crunch - Raw Hedroom Remix [Evolved Records]
Max Cooper - Custard Crush [Evolved Records]
Max Cooper - Nicaragua [Evolved Records]
Max Cooper - Tamperine [Evolved Records]
Max Cooper - Cut Down Crunch [Evolved Records]
Max Cooper - Translation One [Evolved Records]
Max Cooper - Sabotage [Evolved Records]
Max Cooper - Tamper [Evolved Records]
Max Cooper - Crunch [Evolved Records]
Gray - Corrosive - Max Cooper Remix [Evopro]
Max Cooper - One Is None [Evolved]
Max Cooper - The Hand [Evolved]
Max Cooper - I Bet You Look Bov On The Dancefloor [Evolved]
Max Cooper - I Bet You Look Bov On The Dancefloor - Max Hedroom Remix [Evolved]