Breaking Down Armin van Buuren’s Controversial GAIA set
Is the community’s disappointment reasonable?
When Armin van Buuren declared the performance of his GAIA job at this year’s Amsterdam Dance Event, (ADE), the hubs of the whole trance family skipped a beat. This was definitely a show that cannot be missed from the purest of trance lovers – especially considering that a lot of fresh GAIA paths from the upcoming album were likely to be disappeared. It wasn’t a real surprise that the show at the mythical Paradiso place in Amsterdam offered out at five minutes.
GAIA was producer-only alias of Armin and his producing partner, Benno de Goeij – who is one half of some other trance duo, Rank 1. After releasing several mythical trance classics such as”Tuvan,””Status Excessu D,””Aisha,” and also”J’ai Envie De Toi,” GAIA debuted as a live display to the A State of Trance stage at Ultra Music Festival 2014 at Miami.
The huge popularity of GAIA initially comes from their penchant for fusing pure melodies and dreamy battles with exhilarating drive. That push was lost according to many fans that witnessed the brand-new Moons of Jupiter show at this year’s ADE.
GAIA on stage at Paradiso
Armin and Benno chose to integrate not just the GAIA signature audio in their new show, but in addition some deep but melodic techno. While such buildups are typical inside the trance community and throughout demonstrations by Armin himself, GAIA might have put undue emphasis on that portion of their set. Afterwards disappointed fans searched for somewhere to vent their frustrations, which they found at the remarks section of this offial Facebook occasion page.
Not all of the comments posted on this Armin van Buuren Facebook page were optimistic the following day, either. Armin confessed in their own ADE vlog it had been fairly quiet with internet reviews the day following the show, which is generally not the best signal.
The lovers’ disappointment basically comes down to two related things. Firstly, many fans were expecting a pure Trance GAIA performance similar to GAIA’s performances in the past, while they ended up with the first hour full of deep Techno. And secondly, people were complaining about the lack of atmosphere in the crowd, which was probably a result of the difference between the crowd’s expectations and the actual set.
The warmup DJ, Tinlicker, perfectly managed to create a great atmosphere with his Anjunabeats-style sounds, but the extensive deep techno buildup of the GAIA set derailed the atmosphere. The buildup eventually gave way to the more traditional GAIA sound, with tracks like”Empire of Hearts” and”In Principio” being played in the last half hour. Finally, those paths were received with excellent enjoyment by the packaged Paradiso. It afterwards came to light the crowd hoped to hear that throughout the two-hour set. On the flip side, it might have been the extensive build-up that made the audience beg for the timeless GAIA sound.
It may be argued that the very long buildup triumphed in this regard. When these tracks eventually got playedthe crowd’s response was amazing and a wave of joy went through this place. The true fans of such slow-burning sets may therefore certainly find delight from the new GAIA. Additionally, experimenting as a DJ/producer is a superb way to move yourself and the electronic music business to higher places. Continuously experimenting with his own productions and reveals is what finally made Armin van Buuren the dance music legend that he is today.
On the flip side, it may be concluded that this new show does not satisfactorily fulfill the desires of their first GAIA fans. Being the warmup DJ acquired more people going than GAIA was able to in their first hour must have been somewhat embarrassing for Armin and Benno. Considering their 20+ years of expertise in the dance music arena, both might want to get back to the drawing board to get their GAIA show. They must work out how to integrate their new audio, but still capture the crowd performing what they came for: to dance until they reach their particular trance heaven.
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