Without knowing what trance music is, this article can be read—but it cannot be comprehended.Â
So let us begin with an attempted definition, drawn from a classic track: Adagio for Strings by EDM producer Tiësto. One should spin it. The track begins abruptly, with high and low end attacks of rolling precision drums. Wherever they are, physically or emotionally, suddenly one is up and running (in an earthquake).
The BPMs for trance music, which sync one’s heartbeat, are up around 150—a high-intensity workout. As the track builds to an almost unbearable intensity of pleasure-pain, the drums suddenly drop away, and one is launched into the swelling ambience of Adagio for Strings (by composer Samuel Barker). The chip-based reproduction soars with all the original orchestration’s gothic majesty and melodrama. It’s ecstatic.
Now, imagine dancing hard to that track in a dark and laser-lit hall with beautiful strangers briefly unified in the grip of that hypnotic sound. One can now understand something of trance and why it took over the world in the year 2000. And why it’s having a Y2K revival. And why Mo Babiker, Evan Schram and Kooi have consistently sold out shows since launching Trace Goats in February.
However, their success would not be possible without the trance collective’s consistent professionalism or ability to cultivate a new trance community rapidly coming into existence locally.
Cincinnatus Hibbard: Mo, I produce locally, and your production quality—from marketing on—is several cuts above the rest.
Mo Babiker: Well, I am a quality engineer (laughing). Evan and Kooi are also electrical engineers. Personally, I am a radio frequency engineer, and I work in quality assurance for medical equipment.
Engineer connotes technical precision. Like most DJs, you are exacting audiophiles—what sound equipment do you use?
We always use the highest fidelity sound systems available. We collaborate with the biggest names in sound like Funktion and Void. Those systems are built mainly for big music festivals and cost a quarter million dollars to buy—we rent them (laughs).
Elaborate on your production quality—light and smoke, etc.
Our lights and lasers are to the highest standard too. We give our music lists to Kooi, who is our visual show engineer, so he can render projection visuals from scratch for each event. Each event has a different theme—one month we did an ‘underworld’ theme to capture that gothic feeling of ’90s underground warehouse raves; the next we did an ‘alien invasion’ rave theme.
We have our own dance company, Lucid Dancers, led by Elizabeth Beaty and Brittany Radke, who also models for our promo materials. After shows, we always get messages from artists [dancers and flow artists] that want to perform. We tell them, feel free to come up on the stage at some point in the night and dance. And at each event, we always have a DJ up from the crowd that never had a chance to DJ before, and have them perform. We always pay them too.
Your answer segues into the cultivation of your following into a community. Mo, with consistent sell-outs, there is some call to graduate your scale and ambition.
In fall of 2027, we want to produce a two-day festival at one of the fairgrounds. We are calling it ‘The Big One.’
Learn more: Follow their instagram @trancegoats. Trance Goats have dance events each 3rd Saturday at rotating venues. Aug. 22, they will be bringing Bay Area trance legend MARS to Vintage Space in Santa Rosa. Ten percent of ticket sales always go to a local charity.
