Conray mefasolate (Turbine Records)
Varied, yet cohesive.
Adventurous, yet soothing.
A profoundly pleasurable album to sink into, much like a nice warm bath.
Dale Cotton, the producer/engineer behind HDU, Dimmer, The Subliminals, Cloudboy, Sola Rosa and others has offered up his own project in the form Conray. About bloody time too we might add!
In his role of producer/engineer Dale has made something like 40 records, a healthy portion of which are critically acclaimed as some of the best to come out of New Zealand. As well as the ears, Dale is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter – his touches appear anonymously on most the records he works on – (you’d be surprised at some of the hooks he’s responsible for). He straddles all musical forms, (for example, later this year will see the release of two hip-hop albums he’s written and mixed for – WWC and MC Lucia).
His credits to date include the popular and acclaimed Dimmer and Sola Rosa, and of course, his ground breaking work with the group HDU. It’s a discography that includes anyone from Mink and Cloudboy to Mestar and The Subliminals. All of which have earned him critical accolades from the press, and the likes of super-producer Steve Albini. Add recording gigs spanning from a sheep shed up North, to a world class studio in Chicago; a couple of B-net Producer of the Year Awards, and a mighty list of "way too many" shows as live engineer for countless acts – and you’ll still only get part of the picture.
Dale just likes making music, and over the past six months, he finally sat down and made his own album, drawing on anything Dale's into from house and jazz to hip hop and dub, the result is a truly stunning debut album.