MAX COOPER + CHLOE – BRIGHTON DOME 10.5.25
My debut live encounter with Techno/House/Minimal DJ and producer Max Cooper was only seven months ago when he performed at The Old Market in Hove on 3rd October last year. Out of nowhere, that night became my ‘Gig Of The Year’, which certainly was some feat considering the masses of live acts I saw during the year. Read my account of that evening HERE.
So you can guess the pure joy I had when going through this year’s Brighton Festival listings and coming across the Max Cooper listing which read as thus:
“Ground-breaking electronic artist with his most ambitious AV show yet. + support Chloé (SloMo AV).
Over a 15-year career electronic composer Max Cooper has become renowned for immersive live shows performed in such unique venues as the Acropolis in Athens.
Now he presents his most ambitious audio/visual experience to date: Lattice 3D/AV combines projections, lights and lasers to wrap Cooper’s audience in luminous sculptures telling the story of his latest album ‘On Being’ alongside back catalogue content and reworks.
Every show is unique and designed for the space and event, presented as a conversation with both the audience and the architecture through light and sound”.
Record label (‘Mesh’) owner Max Cooper hails from London and famously became the first techno artist to play at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. He is an electronic composer, multi-disciplinary artist, music label founder and former scientist who has carved out a unique space in music and visual art. He has carved a unique space as an audio-visual artist with a science PhD and an international reputation as a leading electronic musician. His work carries an emotional resonance and sensory immersion, often focusing on humanity’s place in the world. He merges electronic music and visual art with scientific enquiry through installations, live performance, immersive audio-visual experiences, a range of digital media and award-winning music videos.
His Bandcamp page hosts a stunning array of material that he has unleashed into the unsuspecting world. His first releases date back to 2007, when he juggled studying Computational Biology with being resident DJ at a local techno club. His first album dropped a decade ago in 2014, this being ‘Human’, which was followed by ‘Emergence’ in 2016, ‘One Hundred Billion Sparks’ in 2018, ‘Yearning For The Infinite’ in 2019, (which incidentally got remixed 2 years later), in between which was the ‘Glassforms’ joint project with Bruce Brubaker, and two years ago he dropped his ‘Unspoken Words’ album. His latest work ‘On Being’ contains an impressive 14 tracks, some of which get an outing this evening at Brighton Dome Concert Hall.
I must admit that I was curious to see exactly how the venue would cater for Max’s all encompassing live show, and if I’m honest, I was a tad apprehensive. Turns out I needn’t have been! The venue’s expansive stage was clutter free, bar a long metal DJ table to the rear with a whole host of electronic equipment sitting on top and waiting for use. The venue was packed full of folk of all ages, which was really pleasing. Thankfully we had managed to nab our spots on the crowd barrier in the centre and above us was a projection unit on the front of the stage floor.
At 8:59pm the lights go out and Max takes to the stage to joyous applause. We are ready to go and initially there is a single light that has fixed its energy onto Max’s face during the latest album title track, namely ‘On Being’, which is followed by ‘Mother Nature Must Have A Different Plan For Me’ which is also from the ‘On Being’ album. We are then thoroughly entertained for the next 139 minutes, until close of play at 11:18pm.
At the previous concert at The Old Market we were also standing centre front, and that time the whole stage area was in my vision with nothing else to distract my eyeline. It’s the same this evening, except the Brighton Dome stage is higher and so the stage drop is in my eyeline as well as everything going on above it. Last time I was virtually tripping out on the graphics and they were at times making me fall backward onto my heels and nearly toppling over, as my brain was getting confused. This time around it wasn’t the case, as I could stabilise myself on the metal crowd barrier, plus I could see the front drop of the stage, and possibly for the first time ever, I could see a gap under the stage, where many flight cases had been left. No doubt this was for all of the equipment, this being the stage wide and depth lighting panels that were behind Max as well as the very fine mesh screen which was draped right across the entire front of the stage.
As ambient electronic sounds fill the busy venue the electronic backdrop comes into play and begins with waves patterns. Shortly after this the front mesh has the images shown on it as well. I can see what looks like three laptops and various electronic equipment on top of Max’s table. Five minutes into the set, at 9:04pm, we get the very first deep bass notes that boom out around the circular venue. The audience is quiet and totally absorbed. The combination of the front mesh screen and rear backdrop give the illusion that Max is actually performing inside a box, especially when the many white lines scroll down the screens, and this brings back memories of when I witnessed Moon Duo performing inside such ‘a box’ at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Brighton on 4th November 2019 (Review HERE).
The sound tonight is terrific as you would expect from a venue of this calibre and the lighting….well ..what can I say! The first true banging beat kicks in at 9:15pm to much cheer from the punters. Unlike the support act, there are actually some minute gaps between the tunes of a second or so, which affords Max the time to raise his hands into the air and clap them above his head; this is emulated by many of those present.
The music genre has moved away from ambient and has now become reminiscent of the likes of Moby and Jam & Spoon. A classic example of this being ‘Spectrum’ from 2022’s ‘Unspoken Words’ album, which gives off the same emotion as listening to The Beloved’s ‘The Sun Rising’, The Grid’s ‘Floatation’ or Moodswings ‘Spiritual High’, it’s all as I term it “Floaty planet”. Memories then come flooding back of the days I used to go up to London to Baker Street to enjoy The Lazerium shows at London Planetarium. This music is really hypnotic and can easily send you into a trance. Check out the ‘Spectrum’ video HERE.
Max beavers away at the rear of the stage as the many images play out on the front mesh and rear screen. It’s difficult to ascertain what’s live or not and exactly what he’s up to, just like Kraftwerk, but I honestly don’t care as long as the music burns its way into my soul. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the material might be culled from other artists and live mixed into the set with his own material, as in a mashup. It’s extremely difficult to work out the exact tunes as they fly by, and so I’ve only been able to list a few at the bottom of this review.
At 9:53pm the beat then speeds up with some really serious deep base action and the lazers are used for the first time. Three minutes in and at 9:56pm things are seriously banging, but only for a very short while. Just after 10pm it got really atmospheric, like something from ‘Blade Runner’ both musically and visually with those deep bass notes rattling my rib cage, as well as the metal plates beneath my feet sending tingles through my boots. It was here that it really felt as though the Dome was actually a spaceship and that it was getting ready to take off. This encouragingly is one of the tunes from the new ‘On Being’ album, namely ‘When I Sit Alone. In My Thoughts. I’am Crushed’ – check out that video HERE.
The 3D combined sound and vision show continued and at 10:15pm we were hit with some fast trip hop drum and bass stylee numbers that usually remind me of ‘Incredible’ by M.Beat Feat General Levy. It’s here that the graphics side of things became even more impressive as two sets of lazers from high above the audience on either side of the auditorium, were hitting the mesh screen. Many punters at the front turned around (myself included) and checked out where they were coming from, then as the beams widened it was as though there was liquid swirling in between each beam. It reminded me of circa 1980 John Foxx and Gary Numan video effects. Even Max’s music at this point was producing sharp bursts of electronic pulses like The Normal’s ‘Warm Leatherette’ and this was ‘Abyss’ by Bredren.
‘Perpetual Motion’ from 2019’s ‘Yearning For The Infinite’ album arrived and the dancing at the front (and no doubt throughout the whole venue) got serious and even some of the venue security staff below the stage were having a real boogie, which was most pleasing to see – we are all one happy family! The Lazers above our heads were in action again and getting lower and closer to us, and then there was the addition of lighting shapes being thrown around the interior of the Dome ceiling and the sensory overload was complete for me as I had a full body tingle (not just the hairs on my head and down my arms, but everywhere), which is almost exclusively reserved for climatic heightened sex.
Skippy beats rang out around the venue and this was the beginning of Max’s remix of Hot Chip’s ‘I Feel Better’, which was terrific. We then had his full length mix of Josh Wink’s ‘Higher State Of Consciousness’ and then as if by magic the fine mesh curtain dropped to the stage floor at 11:15pm to reveal Max in all his glory. Three minutes later that was it! Once again without doubt this will be the visual music gig of the year and tonight was an awesome night out!
Max Cooper setlist included:
‘On Being’ (from 2025 ‘On Being’ album)
‘Mother Nature Must Have A Different Plan For Me’ (from 2025 ‘On Being’ album)
‘Order From Chaos’ (from 2016 ‘Emergence’ album)
‘Wake (Max Cooper Remix)’ (Evan Gildersleeve tune) (original on Evan Gildersleeve’s 2025 ‘Wake’ album
‘Spectrum’ (from 2022 ‘Unspoken Words’ album)
‘Devil’s Elbow (Max Cooper Remix’) (Nick Warren tune) (from Nick Warren’s 2013 ‘Devil’s Elbow single)
‘True Under Certain Conditions’ (from 2025 ‘On Being’ album)
‘When I Sit Alone. In My Thoughts. I’am Crushed’ (Max Cooper & Aho Ssan tune) (from 2025 ‘On Being’ album)
‘Vertebrae/Forgotten Places’ (Max Cooper & Kathrin deBoer tune) (from 2023 ‘Motif’ album)
‘Trust (Kimyan Law Remix)’ feat.Tom Hodge & Kathrin deBoer) (from 2017 ‘Emergence Remixed’ album)
‘Abyss’ (Bredren tune) (a 2021 Bredren single)
‘Under Pressure’ (Alix Perez & TMAN tune) (from Alix Perez’s 2022 ‘Back To Basics’ / ‘Under Pressure’ single)
‘A Sense Of Getting Closer’ (from 2025 ‘On Being’ album)
‘Mi Pieza Esta Llena De Cosas (Max Cooper Remix)’ (Ricardo Tobar tune) (from Moonbeam / Ricardo Tobar’s ‘The Dill Remix Chronicles (Black Bird Edition 001)’ EP)
‘You Couldn’t Love Me Enough And I’ve Spent My Whole Life Making Up For It’ (Max Cooper & Niels Orens tune) (from 2025 ‘On Being’ album)
‘Perpetual Motion’ (from 2019 ‘Yearning For The Infinite’ album)
‘I Feel Better (Max Cooper Remix)’ (Hot Chip tune) (from 2010 Hot Chip ‘I Feel Better Remixes’ single)
‘Higher State Of Consciousness (Max Cooper Remix – Full Length Version’) (Josh Wink tune) (from Josh Wink’s 2023 ‘Higher State Of Consciousness Vol.2’ single)
Support this evening came from Paris based French DJ and producer Chloé Thévenin, which is shortened to just Chloé. She was on stage from 8:00pm – 8:42pm and the crowd during this set was sparse. The performance commenced with plinking electronic noises as a backing and it was ambient. It was solely Chloé on the rear of the stage with her electronic equipment which appeared to include two laptops. Initially there was no lighting whatsoever and then eventually the stage wide backdrop came to life with indefinable pixelated images. After 9 minutes the first booming beat hits and the backing lighting slowly rises. During the performance the venue starts to fill up as the instrumental pseudo ambient tuned continuous set plays out, but with many punters still gassing away. The music doesn’t really go anywhere and fails to grab many’s attention, which is probably why they are still talking, maybe they should have stayed in the bar! This is more like music for a modern art installation than a concert.
