Balance has long been a series that elicits the greatest efforts and most original thinking from artists when it comes to the concept of what we know as a DJ mix. In a world where anyone can easily cobble together a mix via a myriad of tools, it takes increasing amounts of innovation to truly stand out. Max Cooper’s blend of the artistic and scientific schools of thought have steadily built him up to become one of the standout electronic musicians of his generation.
His mesmeric live shows blend dazzling, synchronized visuals that harness concepts borrowed from the natural world and from the mathematical structures of reality itself. This left-of-centre approach makes for a truly timeless addition to the Balance cannon.
He is increasingly known as a highly conceptual artist who thinks outside the box, but one who has the quality and depth of composition and musical emotion to back it up with real substance. Wearing several hats these days — DJ, producer, label owner with his burgeoning Mesh imprint, creator of art installations, a consultant for new technologies — and working with cutting-edge techniques like 4D sound and 360-degree visuals, he is a veritable polymath. “I’ve never really fit in musically” he admits. “I’ve never been part of a particular genre or shared a lasting musical alignment with a particular group of artists or event. Music should be a reflection of who someone is, and none of us can be put into a neat box which defines that. With that in mind, I set out to create something reflecting my club shows but also something reflecting as much as I could of my identity and history.”
Exclusives come in the form of Cooper’s own ‘Balance (Perc Tool)‘ — self-explanatory — and the blissful depths of Music Of The Tides, constructed using an intricate binaural particle cloud simulator plugin created by Rob Clouth. “I wanted to create moving clouds of sound and similarly swelling clouds of melodic synthesis with soft pads and delays” Cooper says of the majestic composition. Clouth also provides three other tracks on the mix (“you can spot which tracks are his by the mastery of intricate productions and beautiful sound design”).
Listen to a preview of Max Cooper’s Balance 030 mix below –
Max Cooper Balance 030 Tracklist:
1. Ben Lukas Boysen, Sebastian Plano – A Greater Pattern
2. Bing and Ruth – The How of it Sped
3. Nils Frahm – For (Max Cooper Remix)
4. Bxentric – Afon
5. Max Cooper – Balance (Perc Tool)
6. Geotic – Actually Smiling
7. Agrippa – Ziplash
8. Portable Sunsets – Straylight (Dave DK remix)
9. Max Cooper – Music of the Tides
10. Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds – 23:52
11. Deapmash – Blocks
12. Burnski – Control
13. Tenebre – Axe Nord-Sud
14. Lusine – Ticking Hands (feat. Sarah McIlwain)
15. Donato Dozzy – A Ritmica
16. Batu – Stairwells
17. Max Cooper – Organa (Patrice Baumel ‘Balance’ Remix)
18. Max Cooper – Resynthesis
19. Lusine – Tropopause (Loscil Remix)
20. Tim Hecker – Chimeras
21. Brecon – Half Light
22. Tessela – Helter Skelter
23. Rob Clouth – Shedding Layers
24. Hidden Orchestra – Wingbeats (Max Cooper Remix)
25. Rob Clouth – Transition (Ben Lukas Boysen Remix)
26. Kimyan Law – Luba
27. Com Truise – Ternary
28. Rob Clouth – Silica
29. HLZ – Dream Source
30. LSB – About Tonight
31. Lee Chapman – Believe in Something
32. Belief Defect – Disembarking Horizons
33. Alix Perez – Blips
34. Atoms for Peace – Default
35. Vaetxh – Unfolding Mechanism
36. Rival Consoles – What Sorrow
See Max Cooper Tour Date below:
23 March – Antwerp – Club Vaag
24 March – Amsterdam, De Marktkantine
7 April – Turin, Museo Del Cinema
4 May – Dubai, Groove On The Grass
5 May – London, Arcadia
25 May – Amersfoort, FLUOR
26 May – Haarlem, Patronaat
15 June – Lille, FR L’Aerone
Preorder Max Cooper’s Balance 030 mix
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