Trance and techno aren’t flirting anymore. They’re locking in.
The proof just landed courtesy of Armin van Buuren and Lilly Palmer, who’ve officially dropped their joint EP Ayi Giri / Dopamine Machine via Armada. Two tracks. Zero compromises. Full rave intent.
After detonating dancefloors with their Face2Face set at A State of Trance Mexico City in late 2025, this release feels inevitable. These tracks have been stress-tested all season, teased at AMF, hammered in warehouses, and sharpened for peak-time damage. Now they’re finally out in the wild.
When Trance Meets Techno Without Diluting Either
This isn’t a polite crossover. It’s a collision.
“Ayi Giri” comes out swinging first. Lilly Palmer’s fingerprints are everywhere: pounding kick drums, relentless forward motion, and a no-nonsense techno spine. The track leans tribal and mystical, with heavy percussion and dark atmospheres pushing the BPM into festival weapon territory. There’s a psy-leaning edge too, nodding to Armin’s past explorations like Great Spirit, but filtered through a harder, more industrial lens.
This is not trance dressed up as techno. It’s techno with teeth.
Then comes “Dopamine Machine”, and the title isn’t subtle. Built around a hypnotic vocal loop repeating the phrase like a mantra, the track plays directly with your nervous system. Van Buuren’s vintage trance synths rise through the arrangement, euphoric and expansive, before Palmer snaps the whole thing into a 150 BPM techno breakdown. It’s tense, euphoric, and mechanical all at once.
You feel it before you analyze it. That’s the point.
A State of Trance, Transformed
These tracks sit squarely in the “Transformation” era of A State of Trance. Harder tempos. Darker moods. Less hands-in-the-air cheese, more warehouse sweat. Armin has been nudging ASOT in this direction for years, but this EP feels like a statement rather than an experiment.
“Pushing the tempo,” Armin said recently. “She has this incredible ability to make a track feel dangerous and beautiful at the same time.”
That balance is the EP’s real flex. Neither artist waters themselves down. Instead, trance and techno share the spotlight without one steamrolling the other.
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Not Their First Connection
This partnership didn’t come out of nowhere. Lilly Palmer previously remixed Armin’s festival staple “Blah Blah Blah,” a rework that Armin premiered during ASOT Rotterdam 2024. That moment quietly laid the groundwork for what’s happening now.
Ayi Giri / Dopamine Machine feels like the natural next step. Not nostalgia. Not trend-chasing. Just two artists meeting where the BPMs make sense.
If this is where trance and techno are headed, the future’s loud, fast, and unapologetic.
- Ayi Giri / Dopamine Machine It’s a two-track collaborative EP by Armin van Buuren and Lilly Palmer.
- Both tracks debuted during their Face2Face set at A State of Trance Mexico City.
- A high-BPM blend of techno and trance designed for peak-time clubs and festivals.