As someone who’s always offered an alternative take on the big-room trance sound, it’s hardly surprising Markus Schulz has bucked the dominant trend on his new artist album Do You Dream? There’s hints straight up, as the ambient intro Alpha State eases us into the proceedings, that we’ll be getting a slightly more sophisticated package than the other disparate affairs we’ve heard from trance artists recently. Acts like Nitrous Oxide, Cosmic Gate, Richard Durand, and even Schulz himself under the Dakota alias, have all delivered artist albums loaded with a mighty selection of club tracks, but lacking the cleverness and ‘big picture’ thinking needed to draw it all together as a cohesive package. But as soon as we smoothly shift into the rolling progressive trance of Away, with the vocals of Sir Adrian gently luring us into Schulz’s big melodies and tight tech rhythms, there’s something more thoughtful at work here.

That’s not to say that Do You Dream? is an overly serious affair; quite the contrary, as for the most part it’s an album of straightforward, melodic club bangers, much more inviting than the dark places that Dakota took us to last year on Thoughts Become Feelings. What we do have is plenty of carefully considered shifts in tone and tempo, just like one of Schulz’s DJ sets when he gets locked into one of those epic, rolling grooves. Dark Heart Waiting presents us with the album’s first properly uplifting moment, with the big trance chords brought out to play, while Not The Same brings in the darker rhythms again, transposed by the sugar-sweet vocals of Jennifer Rene.

He drops into some synthy, glitched-out breakbeat with Unsaid, before later revisiting the broken beats with the considerably more euphoric Unsaid, featuring the unmistakable vocals of Susanna. It’ll no doubt make for an epic place for Schulz to drop down into in his live sets over the next 12 months. He’s included the anthemic The New World, a huge piece of melodic tech trance that cut such a swathe through the scene back in 2008, and it flows right through to the melancholic departure of Goodbye, which sees him sharing production duties with progressive trance doyen Max Graham. The album makes for a great showcase of what a slick and accomplished producer Schulz is, carrying a proper sense of flow that holds all the different threads together.

As satisfying as this is though, it also comes with a dash of disappointment. The big, inviting melodies can often seem a little shallow if you’re a fan of Schulz’s darker musical persona – tracks like Surreal, aiming for a sense of epic grandness, can come off as overwrought and melodramatic, and it’s a sentiment that’s unfortunately a little too common. And there’s the frustrating contradiction that while it’s beautifully executed, it’s also frustratingly beige at times. There’s just no sense of discovery, nothing that trance fanatics wouldn’t have heard many times before.

Do You Dream? is a contradiction on quite a few levels. Extremely satisfying as a package, yet lacking any proper ‘wow’ moments. Fans will have wanted more grit, more edge, more darkness and a little more freshness. Contrasting it with Schulz’s work under his Dakota alias reveals the most – even though Thoughts Become Feelings lacked a cohesive approach, musically it stood out on its own, meaning it went on to make a massive impact in clubland. However, Do You Dream? is still packing plenty of charm, confidence and cleverness – proving Schulz is just as polished a producer as he is a DJ. For fans of Señor Global DJ Broadcast, it’s a no brainer.

Do You Dream? is out now on 405 Recordings through Stomp.