On the seventh day, after a week of exhausting and draining work creating the entire universe, God looked around and surveyed her epic efforts. While she felt satisfied that she had really achieved something special, she had a niggling feeling that something wasn’t quite right. So she looked down at Adam and asked him what he thought was missing. “Well God”, replied Adam, “we need some bangin’ tunes down here on Earth so we can party like it’s 1999”. While God was suspicious of Adam’s desire to indulge in the pleasures of life, she had to agree that Earth sure was lacking some decent music. “Adam, I’ve got the answer”, God said, “go to Holland, and there you’ll find my son, Armin van Buuren. He will provide you with the music you need to live a glorious and fulfilling life. As a trance DJ, his life will sometimes be filled with criticism and condemnation from the non-believers, and he will be regularly crucified by the atheistic music-press, but if you and your descendants maintain your faith, you’ll be rewarded with eternal ecstasy in the musical afterlife”.

Several years later, van Buuren is still pumping out the mixes like Doomsday is only a week away. This latest installment of the Universal Religion series continues the “recorded live” theme of earlier chapters. Apparently it is taken from a set at Amnesia in Ibiza, and so we get some crowd noise thrown in as evidence. Yes, it’s really annoying, and no, I have no idea why anyone feels the need to ruin a perfectly good mix by throwing some “yeahs!” and “woos!” into the background, but I’ll get over it, and so will you. All you need to do is focus on the music, and it’s absolutely amazing.

The mix kicks off with van Buuren’s remix of BT’s Every Other Way, a track that is simply heavenly in its execution. Built around a subtle little guitar riff and some spine-tingling ethereal vocals from Jes Brieden, its layers gradually build to form a piece of shimmering sonic beauty that radiates complete perfection. Cosmic Gate’s Nic Chagall contributes This Moment, and it’s a tasty slice of progressive trance that sucks you right into the heart of the mix. The rolling beats and spacey textures of two Julian Vincent cuts, Here for Me and Perfect Sky, allow van Buuren to floor the clutch and engage a higher gear, and then he teasingly drops his exquisite mix of Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren’s Beggin’ You, to pull the pace back a little.

The epic trance of Daniel Kandi’s Venice Beach is a sheer delight, and sets the tone for the slightly edgier, harder and darker material in the second-half of the mix. Under his Gaia pseudonym, van Buuren includes the surging Gareth Emery remix of Tuvan, and this ploughs headlong into Stadium Four from Lange & Andy Moor, an absolute beast of a track that marries some hard, driving beats and pounding electro with a celestial breakdown full of sweeping synth washes and church organ. The mix delves into some hard territory with a tantalising collaboration between Roger Shah & Signum, and a stellar track from RAM, and then van Buuren leads us into the tail end of proceedings with the pulsating Somehow from tyDi & Dennis Sheperd.

I’m tempted to say that this is the finest mix van Buuren has ever committed to disc, but maybe I’m just caught up in the wondrous afterglow that envelops you after listening to this a few times. There isn’t a single dull moment on here, and I really don’t think it matters whether you like trance or not, this is essential listening. Put simply, it is great music, full stop. Thanks God.

Check out the tracklisting…

1. BT feat. Jes – Every Other Way (Armin van Buuren Remix)
2. Nic Chagall feat. Jonathan Mendelsohn – This Moment (Prog Mix)
3. Julian Vincent feat. Cathy Burton – Here For Me (Mark Otten Re-Dub)
4. Espen Gulbrandsen vs. DJ Julian Vincent feat. Maria Nayler – Perfect Sky
5. Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren – Beggin’ You (Armin van Buuren Remix)
6. Daniel Kandi – Venice Beach
7. Gaia – Tuvan (Gareth Emery Remix)
8. Lange & Andy Moor – Stadium Four
9. Activa vs. Chris & Matt Kidd – U.R. (Stoneface & Terminal Remix)
10. Roger Shah & Signum – Healsville Sanctuary (Roger Shah Mix) (Armin van Buuren Edit)
11. RAM – RAMsterdam (Jorn van Deynhoven Remix)
12. Ian Betts – False Gods
13. tyDi & Dennis Sheperd feat. Marcie – Somehow (Sebastian Brandt Dub Remix)
14. Dakota – Sin City (Rex Mundi Remix)