54 Music Dark Podcast (Oct 09)

[Guest 54 Music]

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Our October Podcast sees us welcome the Dark side hosted by 54 Music A&R guru Sam Russo. Joining him on this soon to be monthly podcast is techno don Max Cooper on the guestmix.

Southend-on-Sea may not be the first place that springs to mind when you think ‘techno,’ but it’s from where 23 year old new techno talent Sam Russo hails. In fact, the town’s disassociation with the music world has been a blessing in disguise...

Rather than spend his youth fixed around one scene as he might have in Leeds, Manchester or even Berlin, the boy had to travel to get his kicks. In doing so, he soaked up a plethora of music styles, a smorgasbord of DJing talents, all the while forming his own take on house and techno.

Fast forward to now and Sam’s early, studious leg work has paid off - not only does he regularly spin at techno titan MR C’s Superfreq night in Southampton, but he also plays at 54, seONE, Pacha and The Aquarium - all in our country’s fair capital.

Weaving dark house, driving techno and rolling minimal melodies into dancefloor destroying sets, Sam, like any artist worth his salt in 2009, is also keen in the studio. So, with a release on Hottwerk already behind him, and a job as A&R man for the ‘Dark’ side of hot new underground label 54 Music, Sam’s submersion in the music world continues to inform and influence him with ever more impressive results.

Having already played alongside the likes of big-name players like Mr C, Hector, Timo Maas and James Zabiela, and with slots at Circo Loco, 54, Digital Disco (London) Anti Clockwise (Manchester) and Junk (Southampton) already completed dates in his DJing diary – it’s unlikely to be long before this tale reaches its end… with Sam himself as the deserving headliner.

Max Cooper is a London based act with a focus on combining creativity and logic. This combined approach is evident in Max’s turntablist DJ sets, technical production style and research as a theoretical geneticist. Max started DJing in the late 90's in his home city of Belfast, Gaining inspiration from artists like QBert, DJ Craze, Baboo and DJ Noize, who used turntables as instruments to create new beats and sounds through scratching and juggling. This DJ style consumed Max’s time for several years until he turned his focus to his next musical obsession in productions.

Max’s DJ career started in 1999, with a residency at ‘Rumour’ in Belfast. A move to Nottingham to pursue his scientific studies then followed, with the start of his long-standing residency at UK club night, ‘Firefly’, now in its 9th year. Max was quickly recognised by the media, receiving the label of Mixmag ‘future hero’. This National recognition helped Max along the way to a BBC Radio1 invite on Fergie’s Friday night show early in 2004. Max’s Radio1 set was well received, and provided him with a signing to Ornadel Management and Mainstage artists. This provided Max with regular dates across the UK and abroad while he pursued the development of his academic and music productions career. Following the completing of his degree, masters and PhD in Nottingham, Max made the move to London to work on new music and research projects. Currently his main projects include the development of his productions and DJing career with Traum schallplatten and management, Germany, mathematical modelling research on the evolution of networks of genes at University College London, and a sci-art project combining evolutionary and music production algorithms.

Since 2001, Max has played a fundamental role at Firefly, helping the night develop into the giant it is today. This residency has seen Max perform alongside acts including Jeff Mills, Booka Shade, Vitalic, Hot Chip, Dave Clarke, Justice, Digitalism, Derrick May, Slam, Alter Ego, Umek, Alex Under, M.A.N.D.Y., Stanton Warriors, Paul Woolford, Justin Robertson, Speedy J, Daddy G (Massive Attack), Marco Bailey, Andrew Weatherall, Ben Sims, Adam Freeland, Plump DJs, Technasia, Freq Nasty, Phil Kieran, Rolando, Fergie, Hybrid, Green Velvet, Luke Slater, Brodinski etc etc etc!

Max’s personal production career began in 2006, with signings to Firefly recordings, Sound of Spectrum and Evolved Records. Much in line with Max’s DJing style, his production is a fusion of elements from electronica, minimal, electro and techno; combined with a dancefloor focus in mind. 2007 continued with more of the same, with new Residencies for Max at The Key - London, Stealth – Nottingham and The Cross – London. Firefly also continues to expand, with new events and festivals in Bristol, London, Sheffield, Birmingham and Nottingham. 2007 also saw Max’s turntablist skills commissioned by the BBC to make a scratch tutorial video which is available on the BBC website.

Max's first EP on evolved records, "One is None" instantly become one of the top selling EP's on the label, setting the trend which has seen demand for his productions explode. This was shortly followed with his first vinyl EP, "Tamperine", demonstrating his minimal/tech edged touches which found there way rapidly on to the beatport minimal charts. 2007 finished with his 3rd EP on evolved - the "Ergo" EP, which was picked up by many major acts and BBC Radio 1 along with several weeks in the DJdownload top 10, hitting a peak at number 4. 2008 has seen a continued climbing in status of Max’s productions on the international scene, with his long awaited ‘FRANK’ on Firefly recordings reaching number 15 on the beatport techno chart, and major artist support for his EPs on on Shrink records, Evolved, Flux, and Russian label, Konnekt records. Recent developments include new signings to Germany’s Autist records and Traum Schallplatten, along with remixes of Extrawelt, Moonbeam and Kanio. Max also made his second BBC radio 1 appearance in 2008 following a recent live recording for Annie Nightinghale.

Available from -

www.samrusso.podomatic.com