Modern Trance Classics 2020s — Definitive Records of the Decade

Music journalism is usually wary of declaring records "classics" before enough time has passed for the verdict to settle. Trance is, in that sense, a useful exception. The genre has a community memory that operates at a faster timescale than the broader pop discourse — a record can become a fixture in DJ sets, a reference point in producer conversations, and a permanent part of the canon within eighteen months of release if it earns it. The 2020s have already produced a handful of those records. The list below is not predictive; these tracks have already cleared the bar.

The most culturally significant trance development of the 2020s so far is not a single record but a body of work: Matteo Milleri's Anyma project, and specifically the residencies and installations he has built around it (most notably his 2024-2025 Las Vegas Sphere shows). Records like "Eternity" and the Anyma collaborations with Chris Avantgarde and Argy reframed what trance-adjacent music could look and sound like at the largest scale, and the decade-defining commercial success of the Sphere shows reset the ceiling on what an electronic act can do as a live experience. Whether or not Anyma is "trance" in the genre-purist sense is a debate worth having — but the records belong on any honest 2020s list.

Above & Beyond entered the 2020s on the back of their 2018 Common Ground album cycle and continued building on that foundation: vocal trance with songwriting that holds up stripped down on their Acoustic albums, performed at venues including the Hollywood Bowl. Their decade-spanning approach demonstrates one of the things that distinguishes trance from disposable electronic music — the records are built to last beyond their release year, and the 2020s have so far rewarded that approach. Anything from this era of theirs that gets played in a Group Therapy set is a candidate for canonical status.

The 2020s have also been the decade of the underground uplifting revival — a generation of producers, often Eastern European or working with FSOE-aligned labels, who have committed to the 138 BPM uplifting tradition and pushed it forward without diluting it. Records from this revival do not always show up on commercial DSPs in the same numbers as Anjunabeats releases, but they fill rooms, soundtrack festival sunrises, and consistently appear in DJ sets at every level of the scene. The names — Bryan Kearney, Will Atkinson, Solis & Sean Truby, Allen Watts and many more — are familiar to anyone who pays attention to the underground.

The records and bodies of work named above have all earned the description for the same reason: they have entered the language. Producers reference them when they discuss what they are trying to achieve. DJs reach for them at moments of emotional weight in long sets. Listeners encounter them at festivals and remember the moment for years. That kind of cultural penetration used to take a full decade. In the 2020s, with attention compressed and information moving faster, it can happen in three or four years. The records that have managed it deserve the recognition. We will keep the list updated as the decade plays out.