Conor Patton—aka “Conro” — is a Canadian producer that primarily releases music on the label Monstercat. The first time I was introduced to Conro’s music, a good friend of mine sent me the track “Lay Low”. I instantly fell in love with his production and vocal style. Ever since, I have always enjoyed his releases. In May, he released his debut album Level Days. It’s diverse genres and immaculate production are just a few reasons why I have listened to the album excessively.
Level days starts out with “The Small Things”, which slowly fades in with echoing guitars, drum rolls, and vocals. It quickly leads the way with an upbeat indie dance sound. I really enjoy the space he creates with each build up between the drums and vocals.
“Without Your Love” is a fun, poppy dance song. I particularly like the intricate drums throughout the chorus. In “Therapy” the funky bass really drives the song, complimented well by the distorted guitar. “Fighters” is a solid progressive house track. One thing that always piques my interest when listening is the way he creates texture with his reverse vocals.
“Way Up”, featuring Nevve, is a fun breakbeat track. The vocals are constantly bouncing back and forth or harmonizing and keep you engaged the entire track. “Waiting” is a cute indie pop love song. The chorus is infectious and has been stuck in my head a few times. My favorite part of “Dreaming” is the soulful bass during the verses.
One of the standout tracks for me is “Tattoo”, a future trap track that has such a great blend of guitar, piano, and bass, with a vocal that gets a good amount of vocoder treatment. “Out for the Night” has a really catchy melody and a bassline that is sure to get your head bobbing. Another standout track for me is “Overdue.” The pre-chorus buildup with driving guitars flows so smoothly into a beautifully manipulated vocal during the chorus.
My favorite track of the album has to be “Say It”. One of the reasons I love Conro so much is his vocals. This track is a great example of how he has driving synths accompanied by glitch sound effects, while playing with his vocoder. “Here to Stay” is an acoustic track that has lush vocals layered creating a good amount of depth and closes the album out nicely
The reasons I first fell in love with Conro’s production style are apparent all throughout the album. It has a good flow from track to track, carried by the use a lot of the same instruments and elements. Conro’s sound is a good balance of singer songwriter, EDM, and pop and this album is a great representation of it.
You can find Level Days on Spotify
Chris Spear, DJ Killa Chris, has been DJing in Nashville since 2010. Finding good music has always been a passion of Killa Chris’s. So every week he is going to share some of the newest tracks from popular producers and unknown artists from all over the world. You can find his original productions here at soundcloud.com/djkillaxchris & audius.co/killachris. His live and prerecorded mix sets are at mixcloud.com/christopherthomasspear.
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