Compilation Review: Sharam / ‘Night & Day’ (Yoshitoshi)

★★★☆☆

Beats by day, beats by night, right? Wrong. Whether by design or luck, the Deep Disher’s two-disc split is interchangeable; blindfolded, you’d struggle to make out which is which. The core of the Day mix minds its own business, tugging at ears with fleeting bursts of sunshine progressing into a deep/tribal/funky house lumber, all bompity-bomp beats that you can reasonably hold conversations over when waving at the party from afar. Alas, disc one can just as easily worm its way past sunset and into the most remote island recesses making you break curfew.

Yet from long periods of keeping on the straight and narrow, Extrawelt cuts in with robust electro-house, and Maetrik grumbles with a definite grab for night vision goggles. Taking you by surprise, the Day mix includes Prince Club’s “Love Strong,” a plastic handbag houser sampling the Backstreet Boys, and goes way back with Boris Dlugosch’s “Keep Pushin’.”

The Night mix, having started with a more cheerier daylight perspective but kickstarted by Sharam’s own “Our Love,” mischievously sneaks in a snatch of the Sneaker Pimps’ “Spin Spin Sugar.” It’s another revelation found in the middle of deep and dirty tech pumps ideal for midnight runs, grizzly bro-step house beats (Dubsidia versus Dirtyloud), mainstream hopefuls, tough bass, returns to funky sunshine and a closing ragga-D’n’B finale. It shows Sharam isn’t one to be taking requests – his ones and twos, his rules, whatever the hour is.
File under: Avicii, Marco Bailey, Stefano Noferini