The weekend before Thanksgiving, when most decent folks are still figuring out who’s bringing the stuffing, a small army of kandi-covered trance heads will be making their yearly pilgrimage to the Queen Mary Waterfront in Long Beach. Dreamstate SoCal returns November 20 and 21, and this year’s lineup is stacked deep enough that building your schedule might require a spreadsheet (and possibly a therapist).
Between the golden-era legends, the hard-hitting newcomers and a couple of genuine one-of-a-kind moments, there’s a lot to take in over two nights. Here are a few of the sets to plan your weekend around.
Friday, November 20
Andrew Rayel presents EXTASIA
Andrew Rayel has always been the classically trained kid of the trance world. The Moldovan producer grew up studying orchestral music, and you can hear it in every piano run and string swell he’s ever put out. This year he dropped EXTASIA, his fourth studio album, and it’s a straight-up love letter to trance’s golden era: big breakdowns, patient builds and melodies that take their sweet time before they hit you. Expect cuts like “Kronos,” “My Ocean” with Diandra Faye and “Never Be The Same” with Alan Morris and Joanna Angelina. Bring tissues. Or at least sunglasses.
Infected Mushroom
Some acts you go see for the songs. Infected Mushroom you go see for the chaos. Amit Duvdevani and Erez Eisen have been bending psytrance into strange new shapes since the mid-’90s, and tracks like “Becoming Insane” and “Converting Vegetarians” still turn a crowd into a single, sweaty organism. Their shows are loud, theatrical and unpredictable in the best way possible. If you only catch one psy set all weekend, make it this one.
Astrix
If Infected Mushroom is psytrance’s mad scientist, Astrix is its precision engineer. The Israeli producer has been behind some of the most-played psy anthems of the last two decades, with “Deep Jungle Walk” still sitting near the top of that list. His sets are relentless, rolling and built for massive crowds. Pair him with Infected Mushroom for a Friday night psy double feature, and thank me later.
David Rust + Olly James
This one might be the sleeper hit of the weekend. Glasgow’s David Rust is a DJ’s DJ, the kind of selector who chops, cuts, scratches and throws FX around like he’s got an extra set of hands hidden somewhere. His sets bounce between hard trance, tech trance, psy and techno without ever losing the thread. On the other side of the decks, Durham’s Olly James has spent the last decade-plus remixing for names like David Guetta, Calvin Harris and Armin van Buuren, and lately he’s been living right at the intersection of trance and techno. Put the two of them together and there’s a good chance nobody on that dance floor stands still for the full set.
A.N.I.
Keep an eye on this name. Berlin’s A.N.I. started out on classical piano, then found her way into the city’s club scene playing a fast, hard-hitting blend of hard techno and hard trance. She’s built a serious following with her “Transition Tuesday” clips, which are basically a weekly masterclass in how to mix quickly and cleanly, and she’s already played Teletech, World Club Dome, Verknipt and HIVE (where she opened her set with a keytar, which is honestly all you need to know). Catch her now, because she won’t be on the early slots for long.
BT + Matt Fax
BT is one of those artists who has quietly influenced just about everybody on this lineup. From “Flaming June” to his film scores and the production tricks he helped invent, the man has been pushing electronic music forward for over 30 years. Teaming up with melodic producer Matt Fax, this should be a set for folks who appreciate musicianship as much as the drop.
Mauro Picotto
For the veterans in the crowd, this is the history lesson you actually want to attend. The Italian legend behind “Komodo,” “Lizard” and “Iguana” helped define the tech-trance sound of the late ’90s and early 2000s. It’s a rare chance to hear that original, gritty energy on a SoCal stage, and it might just explain where half of Friday’s harder-edged DJs got their ideas.
Reinier Zonneveld (live)
Techno heads, this one’s yours. The Dutch powerhouse brings a full hardware live set packed with pounding kicks and acid lines that squelch their way right through your chest cavity. Think of it as the perfect appetizer for the acid-soaked main course coming Saturday night.
Saturday, November 21
Above & Beyond (Anjunabeats Classics)
This is the one a lot of longtime fans circled the second the lineup dropped. Instead of a standard headline set, Jono, Tony and Paavo are digging back through the vault of Anjunabeats, the label they started back in 2000 that became home to more trance anthems than I could list here. Expect deep cuts, big singalong moments and a whole lot of people hugging strangers. It’s basically a family reunion with lasers.
Paul van Dyk presents The Essence of Acid
Here’s your “I was there” moment of the weekend. Paul van Dyk is using Dreamstate SoCal to debut The Essence of Acid, a brand-new live concept, and Long Beach gets it before anywhere else in the world. Rather than a DJ set, he’ll be performing on hardware built around the sounds of the classic TB-303, TR-808 and TR-909, mixing unreleased material and acid-heavy compositions with live reworks of tracks from his catalog. The stage design is getting the same treatment, with visuals pulled from circuitry, oscilloscopes and waveforms, all moving in sync with the music. Fitting, considering van Dyk was one of the first artists to champion Dreamstate back when it launched in 2015.
Ferry Corsten + Marsh
On paper, this is one of the more interesting pairings on the entire bill. Ferry Corsten is a trance architect whose System F and Gouryella records still show up in sets two decades later. Marsh represents the deeper, more melodic side of today’s scene. Two generations of melodic trance sharing one set of decks should make for something you won’t hear anywhere else.
Aly & Fila + Billy Gillies
If you’re looking for pure, uncut euphoria, look no further. Egypt’s Aly & Fila have been flying the flag for uplifting trance for two decades through their Future Sound of Egypt brand. Northern Ireland’s Billy Gillies, the guy behind the modern anthem “DNA (Loving You),” joins them for what should be one of the most hands-in-the-air sets of the night.
Bryan Kearney + John O’Callaghan presents KEY4050
Two of Ireland’s most respected trance names join forces for their KEY4050 project. The duo which leans techy and hypnotic is no stranger to the Dreamstate stage (having premiered their live partnership back at Dreamstate 2017). If you like your trance with a little more muscle and a little less sparkle, plant yourself here.
Vini Vici
The Israeli psy duo behind “The Tribe” and “Great Spirit” (with Armin van Buuren and Hilight Tribe) knows exactly how to turn a festival crowd into one giant stomping mass. It’s mainstage psy at its finest, and a solid way to burn off whatever energy you have left on Saturday night.
Final Thoughts
There’s a reason trance fans keep coming back to this music year after year. It’s the genre of the long build, the one that asks you to be patient and trust that the release is coming. And when that breakdown finally lifts and thousands of strangers throw their hands up at the exact same moment, you remember why you’re here. For two nights on the Long Beach waterfront, with the Queen Mary glowing behind the stage and the city lights reflecting off the water, none of the outside noise matters. Every one of these artists got here by chasing a feeling, and they’re about to hand that feeling to you. So find your people, say hi to the stranger next to you, and let the music carry you somewhere new. I’ll see you on the dance floor.
Post by Derek Tobias aka Shadows and Strobes
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