Nearly a decade since the Washington D.C.-based producer, Sharam, dropped his first album Get Wild, he recently unleashed a brand-new full length album titled Retroactive. Retroactive takes the listener back in time through past generations and genres of music. From the disco era to current underground techno and house music, Sharam’s new album features a multitude of sounds and invokes an array of different emotions. At times, all I wanted to do was dance, and at others, I couldn’t help think about past relationships and moments in my life that date all the way back to the 80’s.
In addition to releasing Retroactive, Sharam has dropped loads of mixtapes throughout the years, plus, he’s worked very hard with his main partner behind the decks, Dubfire, and their infamous side project, Deep Dish. Together, they also collaborated to create their own record label, Yoshitioshi. Last year their label claimed the title of Top-Selling Techno Track after releasing a hit track by Nicole Moudaber.
When it comes to the versatility of Retroactive, Sharam does an amazing job captivating a plethora of different music lovers. Not only does he utilize sounds from a wide variety of genres within the last 30 years or so, but he harnesses emotions from them in a manner where listeners of all ages, and, in all settings, from clubs to a living room, can enjoy the album.
As far as the opening of this album and many others are concerned, I feel like the beginning of the majority of albums start one of two ways: either it’s somewhat slow and works its way up to a climax later down the track list, or, the album starts with an in-your-face track that usually leads to climax after climax as the album continues. In the case of Retroactive, Sharam comes out with his guns blazing by kicking the album off with an upbeat track called “Arpi.”
“Apri” gives off a videogame-like vibe that sounds like it was influenced by artists like Daft Punk and even Nine Inch Nails (NIN). The album continues with Daft Punk-like samples in a track called “Over You,” as Sharam uses a fair amount of vocals that are projected via the voice of a robot. The next song, titled “Same” featuring Anousheh, goes in a slightly different direction by featuring sounds that one would here in 80’s. Due to the pop-like music that is thrown around FM radio all day long I’m not the biggest fan of the vibes from some of these lyrical selections in general.
Songs that stood out to me most included “Crazi Flute” with Giorgio Moroder, which reminded me of the longtime electronic music legend, Fat Boy Slim. Perhaps on of my favorite tracks on Retroactive was “Call To Me” featuring Daniel Bedingfield. “Call To Me” included lyrics that drew a bliss of harmony that carried on to a vibrant melody and upbeat tempo. In my opinion, “Call To Me” was definitely one of the catchier tracks on the album that featured lyrics.
The next track featured on Retroactive, and the most popular according to Soundcloud and other streaming mediums, “Morning Glory” (Original Mix) feat. Chance Caspian – Morning Glory (Original Mix), was with no doubt one of the most captivating points of the album. The track starts out immediately gripping its listeners, then putting them in a trance, forcing them to dance.
Retroactive then led us to somewhat of a come down with “Gypsi,” which was a bit repetitive, yet it served as a decent segue into another track featuring Anousheh called “Blind.” I got to be honest, the more I continued to hear her voice the more I wanted the next track to start. While she does have an amazing voice, tracks she’s featured on were a bit too pop-sounding for my taste. That feeling quickly changed when Sharam busted out the next track called “Techi.”
“Techi” lives up to its name by sporting a wide array of sounds that draw the listener in at the first note. It seems like over that the album overall had lots of deep drum-like beats that reminded me of deep-house jungle music (if there is such a thing). The Techi-tribal music goes up and down, hard and soft, making it a stellar track to bob your head to on the dance-floor. For Sharam’s last song featuring Anousheh is a famous cover by The Eurythmics titled “Here Comes The Rain Again.” This lyrical track, I have to admit, Anousheh does a wonderful job singing the classic and feel it can touch the soul of those who thrived in the 80’s and those who discovered electronic music in recent times.
The final track, and the also the longest track, coming in at just under 15 minutes, “The Photograph” featured the likes of Sharam going B2B with Alex Neri (Sharam vs. Alex Neri). The track starts off with a heart-throbbing beat that grips listeners like the claws of a Raptor, before taking them through a spacey transition that brings the audience into a trance. The epic saga of “The Photograph” brings listeners through a madhouse of beats, vibes, and trances, before gaining full momentum about half way through and keeping a strong flow to the very end of the album, leaving the listener craving for more.
Luckily for you and me, you can stream Sharam’s latest masterpiece known as Retroactive time and time again in via the link below! You can also go see him live as he has plans to unleash this album all over the world during Sharam’s 2016 summer tour.