Product Review

Dubbed the It genre of 1999, trance music saw its DJs' bookings rise to unprecedented heights. Though most of the DJs getting recognition were European superstars, Americans like Sandra Collins and Miami's George Acosta have caught a bit of the media hype. Awake displays Acosta's penchant for the superbombastic epics that helped him carve his name at Miami's Shadow Lounge. He plays the kind of trance that is unrelenting, with elongated builds, pregnant pauses punctuated by trebly traces, and hyper melodies. Acosta's style sits somewhere between German pretty boy Paul Van Dyk and big guns Sasha and Digweed, managing to be hard and happy at the same time. Though it's somewhat psychedelic, Awake is classic epic trance, favoring big sounds, big swoops, and big meltdowns over little squiggly noises. --Tricia Romano