Chris Ramos ends an eight-year gap with ‘Underwater

Chris Ramos has released ‘Underwater’, his first release in eight years. That stretch took in a lengthy hiatus he spent healing and working out who he was, and what ends it is a complete debut album, ‘Evolution’, which ‘Underwater’ opens. Ramos dates the beginning of the work to 2020, and in his own recollection it feels much more recent than that, something closer to a year’s worth.

Before the break he was placing singles with Monstercat, then still an emerging label, and he had teamed up with Tritonal along the way. Ramos has charted on Billboard’s Hot Dance list and has broken into Beatport’s overall top 100. ‘Underwater’ is uplifting melodic techno with anthemic vocals, and the album behind it runs to thirteen tracks — ‘Pushin’ turns organic further down the running order, and ‘Mike Tyson’ is the gritty one. The album is out now via Feels Like Records, a label Ramos has not previously released through. It is streaming in full alongside the single if you want the whole of it. “’Underwater’ sets the tone for the entire ‘Evolution’ album,” Ramos said.