Deepgrooves - Sulata

Sulata had previously been in another outfit on Deepgrooves, called Colony. When that group imploded, she got picked up by Deepgrooves for a solo career. She appeared on several other Deepgrooves recordings for New Loungehead and Three the Hard Way (see earlier post).

Her debut album, Kia Koe, came out in 1996, and was produced by Simon Holloway, who also collaborated as songwriter with Sulata on most of the tracks. It's a laidback affair, not a million miles away from similar downtempo/acid jazz acts of the era, like Massive Attack or Incognito. It's also an album that didn't rely on samples, like most other Deepgrooves acts.




Musicians who played on the sessions include Nathan Haines, Dan Sperber (New Loungehead), Wayne Bell, Luke Casey, Rob Salmon (Urban Disturbance), Levani Vesasi, Gareth Price (Semi Lemon Kola, Slacker). It was recorded inhouse at Kaiun Digital by Chris Sinclair.

As I mentioned in the profile on Colony, following her solo work she was singing and performing  in Te Vaka led by her cousin Opetaia Foa'i. She's still involved in various musical activities, according to her bio on her employer's site.