TuneLab
MARKUS SCHULZ B2B FERRY CORSTEN (NEW WORLD PUNX) in The Lab #SmirnoffHouse
at EDC Las Vegas
Of course you're here, frantically typing 'what was that track with the arpeggio' after getting lost in the neon desert. Two trance titans, Markus Schulz and Ferry Corsten, reunited as New World Punx for a set that felt like a time capsule from when breakdowns were measured in continents, not seconds. The Smirnoff House lab at EDC Las Vegas provided a stark, clinical box for this melodic onslaught, all LEDs and sweat-soaked devotion. Technically, this is a masterclass in the 136 BPM trance propulsion that defined an era, anchored firmly in the euphoric key of 12A with strategic modulations into 3A and 6B for emotional depth.
The energy profile is telling: a dominant low-end (0.70 avg) provides the relentless drive, while carefully rationed mids (0.20) and highs (0.10) are deployed as surgical strikes for those hands-in-the-air moments. Their mixing is seamless and narrative-driven, using long blends to build harmonic tension over vast, rolling landscapes, with the low-mid-high balance crafting a room that feels both cavernous and intimate. For crate diggers, the highlights are textbook trance archaeology. The opening, Singo's 'No Roots (The Annual Rework)', is a thirteen-minute epic that sets the cinematic scale.
Their own collab 'Loops & Tings' serves as a gritty, percussive pivot point. Benjamin Bates' 'Layzor' offers a darker, driving interlude, while the inclusion of Hilight Tribe's 'Free Tibet (Vini Vici Remix)' is a blatant, effective play for the festival mainstage psyche. The real deep cut genius is dropping the Underground Sound of Lisbon classic 'Só Get Up' via Danny's haunting 'In The Light We Sleep' mix, a leftfield touch that rewards the faithful. The journey is pure trance arcology: from the wistful intro of 'No Roots', through the stormy, peak-time catharsis of the eponymous track 'Storm', before landing on the progressive, resolved warmth of Mauro Picotto & Riccardo Ferri's 'New Time New Place'.