During the past week, the worldwide trance community’s attention has been fixed on Dreamstate SoCal. To follow up a year of more sparse Dreamstate marketing, Insomniac Events announced that they would reveal the lineup of the festival across six days, and just finished up yesterday.
The first day of the reveal campaign announced that Gaia, Armin van Buuren’s project with Benno de Goeij, would be on the roster. Whereas van Buuren currently plays primarily mainstream EDM, the music of Gaia centers around faster and more uplifting styles of trance. Although de Goeij and van Buuren have been producing under the Gaia alias since 2009 with the release of “Tuvan,” they did not play their first live set until A State of Trance 650 at Ultra Music Festival 2014.
Since then, the Gaia live set has continued to be a rare occurrence, and is thus always an announcement eliciting large amounts of excitement. This time was no different.
The second, third, and fourth days revealed a more obscure roster, including a plethora of artists from several major subgenres of trance. Anjuna fans will be happy to see the likes of Alpha 9, Andrew Bayer, Ilan Bluestone, Jason Ross and Sunny Lax join the list, while hard trance fans will be treated to Sean Tyas, Greg Downey, Shugz, and Jordan Suckley. Suckley will also be debuting his new 3Fect artist project, which he describes as “Live Mashups, FX, Scratching & Futuristic Turntablism! (sic)” Suckley has been releasing live videos of himself practicing scratching and live mashups on Facebook, which is telling for what’s in store.
“Pure trance” will be on full display at Dreamstate, with artists like Solarstone, who spearheaded the movement with the support of Giuseppe Ottaviani, along with Robert Nickson and the legendary Orkidea joining the bill. Along with Orkidea, other classic-tier trance artists on the lineup include Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold, and Kristina Sky. Marco V has also been a recent source of conversation amongst trance fans around the world. Amongst a massive return of artists who once left trance music to pursue other, more marketable genres of music, Marco V has done so with a uniquely respectable approach; the Dutch DJ and producer has released a steady stream of raw, unadulterated tech trance.
Also announced were a few rare side projects including Key4050, the hard tech trance brainchild of John O’Callaghan and Bryan Kearney, as well as The Thrillseekers pres Hydra. The Hydra alias was responsible for the classic trance-inspired hit “Amber,” released on Future Sound of Egypt last year. MaRLo will be showcasing his signature “tech energy” style, which usually leaves the Australian playing dark and deep tech trance, while still infusing his well–known, room-filling sound.
There are a few trends that the Dreamstate team have picked up on, and it shows in their bookings. For example, various forms of psytrance (such as full-on and progressive) have become increasingly popular over the last two years. Organizers responded with their fifth day announcement, revealing 18 respected artists from various regions of the psy spectrum. The outfit who have arguably benefited most from the recent psy surge are Vini Vici, who will be in attendance along with other well known psy acts such as Liquid Soul, RITMO, and Ace Ventura.
This was unsurprising to many though, as Iboga Records had leaked this particular announcement a few days prior on Instagram, which was spread about social media quickly afterwards.
TRANCE DESTINATION
Until 2015, an American hoping to attend a trance-centered festival had to look abroad. It was this situation that allowed Dreamstate, Insomniac’s former EDC trance stage turned festival, to become the only trance-focused massive in the US.
The result of the November 2015 debut of the brand in SoCal was more than a night of uplifting melodies and euphoria for those in attendance. It was largely seen by the American trance community as an overwhelming success, and thus presented Insomniac with a unique opportunity.
A massive effort was put forth over the next two years to expand the Dreamstate brand outside of southern California, and recently outside the states all together. Such expansion projects gave rise to Dreamstate Mexico, Dreamstate UK, and most recently, a US-wide tour featuring Paul van Dyk. The business model has not been unilaterally embraced by trance fans, with some claiming that the expansion diluted the brand.
The six days of lineup announcements concluded with the revelation that Armin van Buuren would also perform solo – a development met with mixed feelings by trance fans given the Dutch icon’s main stage leanings in recent years.
Dreamstate SoCal will take place at the National Orange Show Event Center in San Bernardino, California on November 24th and 25th. Find the list of artists organized by primary and secondary genres below.
Dreamstate SoCal 2017:
Each artist’s secondary trance subgenres noted in italics
Big room trance:
- Andrew Rayel
- Armin van Buuren
- ATB
- David Gravell
- KhoMha
- Orjan Nilsen
- Ruben de Ronde
Classic trance:
- Judge Jules (Classics)
- Paul Oakenfold (uplifting, big room)
- Rank 1 (Live)
- Real Trance Family
- The Thrillseekers Pres. Hydra (uplifting, progressive)
Hard trance:
- John O’Callaghan & Bryan Kearney pres. Key4050
- Jordan Suckley (tech, psy)
- Jordan Suckley pres. 3Fect
- Sam Jones B2B UCast (tech, psy)
- Sean Tyas (tech, psy)
Progressive, vocal trance:
- Alpha 9
- Andrew Bayer
- Ben Gold (uplifting, big room)
- Ilan Bluestone
- Jason Ross
- Roger Shah
- Sunny Lax
Psytrance:
- Ace Ventura
- Alpha Portal
- Astrix
- Avalon
- Barakuda
- Blastoyz
- BLiSS
- Captain Hook
- Coming Soon!!!
- Emok
- Future Frequency
- Khromata
- Liquid Soul
- Neelix
- Outsiders
- RITMO
- Sonic Species
- Symbolic
- Vini Vici
Pure trance:
- Aeon Presented by Paul van Dyk
- Gaia (uplifting, classic)
- Orkidea (uplifting, classic)
- Robert Nickson
- Solarstone
Tech trance:
- Greg Downey (uplifting)
- John Askew (uplifting)
- MaRLo (Tech Energy Set) (big room, progressive)
- Marco V
- Mauro Picotto
- Shugz (hard)
Uplifting trance:
- Alex M.O.R.P.H. (tech, psy)
- Bryan Kearney (tech)
- Cold Blue
- Daniel Skyver (tech)
- Factor B (progressive, pure)
- Fady & Mina
- Ferry Tayle
- Giuseppe Ottaviani Live 2.0 (tech)
- John O’Callaghan
- Kristina Sky
- Manuel le Saux (tech)
- Menno de Jong (tech)
- Sied van Riel (tech, pure)
- Simon O’Shine
- Stoneface & Terminal (progressive)
- Thomas Datt (progressive, psy)
