I don’t think I’ll ever forget the moment from a couple of Saturdays ago, as I watched Armin van Buuren invite Above & Beyond to share the stage with him, premiering their new collaboration Show Me Love during ASOT900.

Arguably the two biggest trance artists on the planet, an Armin and A&B collaboration has been repeatedly requested and dreamt about by fans of both artists alike. As a big fan of both myself, I still cannot believe that this is a thing. As the Beatport description acutely summarizes, “The one we’ve all been hoping for is actually here.”

Over the years, both of these artists have changed their styles quite a bit. Armin has moved towards the big-room sound, while Above & Beyond have drifted (albeit only slightly) towards the more bass-heavy progressive styles, but not without their fair share of soaring synths either. This collaboration would have sounded a lot different a few years ago, but very honestly, I don’t think that would top the result they’ve produced now. It’s a fair share of the Armin’s precise vocal chops and Above & Beyond’s meticulously-made basslines. It’s a balance between Armin’s grandiose, minimalist drops and A&B’s mellifluous, subtle breakdowns. Proving to the world that progressive and bigroom trance aren’t going anywhere, this 128 BPM track manages to incorporate the best of both world’s without compromising on quality as one might expect in a collaboration of these proportions.

What I can, however, critique in this song is the lack of a melodic drop. In my opinion, Above & Beyond’s best tunes – including Red Rocks and Distorted Truth – feature a drop melody that’s reminiscent or developed from a melody used in the breakdown. Perhaps having the drop bubble into a cascade of harmonic synths might have been a better idea to get the special feeling that A&B songs manage to induce.

Nevertheless, it’s apparent after a few listens that the talking point of this collaboration isn’t really the drop, it’s the harmony and the melody – especially in the break. While the drop was somewhat a letdown as it was more geared towards Armin’s vocal chop-infused bigroom dispositions as in You Are, the piano in the breakdown is truly mesmerizing, and really does remind you what trance is all about. And of course, there’s that unmistakably Above & Beyond-made melody is the latter half of the break, which sparkles through your speakers right before the bass hits. That’s not to say that the drop ruined the song – there’s still a lot to appreciate on that front – especially A&B’s sound design on the basses, which is always phenomenal.

When two acts this big collaborate, labels are always an issue. In this scenario, the debate seems to have had been resolved relatively easily, by choosing to release it on both their home labels – Armin’s Armind and A&B’s Anjunabeats. Although I go for a hot take here and say that this release is much more along Armind’s sound than Anjuna’s, with the rapidly evolving sound of trance music in general, it’s impossible to unmistakably categorize a song to the sound of a label.

Above & Beyond have a bunch of unreleased music still to come, with their Companion EP to Common Ground arriving in less than a month (including their unreleased There’s Only You collaboration with Zoe Johnston). They also premiered a new psy tune called Waltz at ASOT which has been received immensely positively. Armin van Buuren also premiered a couple new tunes of his, including his third Shapov collaboration and a Blah Blah Blah follow-up. Make sure to check out both their sets in HQ below – and listen to the premiere of Show Me Love while you’re at it too.