IN CASE you haven’t entered its fascinating, layered, granular, beautiful world yet, rest assured that Max Cooper’s Earth EP is one of the absolute highlights of IDM in 2020: what is, in the most reductive sense, a four-track techno 12″ is in fact an exercise in irresistible groove, synaesthesic sound sculpture, enthralling film collaborations – even leaf skeleton prints. Hell, you can read our full review here.
After the brilliant humans-as-hive-patterns film made by the McGloughlin brothers, for which Max scored the track “Swarm” (you can see it here and yes, the creative flow was that way around) he’s just released the short film for “Reflect”, in collaboration with New York-based Japanese artist Yoshi Sodeoka; and a beautiful, organic, microscopic study in form and pattern it is too. Have a watch for yourself, below.
… which is of course not to forget the track itself. “Spike” sets out a stall to get the bones in rhythm. A distant kickdrum makes the fingers, the shoulders, the neck, flex. That percussive hypnotism established, your fleshly avatar seduced, Max again builds in these layers.
The main filtering melodic chop is pleasingly cyborg: every beat carrying a different tonality, lighting a different neural path. Really, there’s no rush to get there; every beat, every bar is a journey. Again, maestro.
Max Cooper’s Earth EP is available now on digital and vinyl formats at his Bandcamp page, here, where you can also find a strictly limited run of accompanying leaf-skeleton prints tying in with each track.
