MaRLo Essentials

Precise yet playful, MaRLo’s trance creations guide listeners through euphoric peaks with a reliable blast of energy. No wonder the label he founded in 2017 is called Reaching Altitude, and why he annually hosts a blockbuster show called ALTITUDE in various Australian cities. Such imagery also regularly appears in track titles like “Lighter Than Air” and “Castles in the Sky.” The Dutch-born Australian DJ (real name Marlo Hoogstraten) has committed himself to gravity-defying feats since breaking through at the dawn of the 2010s. Yet he has a harder side, too, as heard in the rhythms bolstering 2019’s “Whisper”—featuring repeat vocalist HALIENE—and the pure tech-trance drive behind 2024’s “Dreaming (A Dreamstate Anthem),” conceived as a theme song for the titular festival’s Southern California installment. But no matter how intense certain parts of his tracks become, you can always count on MaRLo to inject some levity with a well-timed melodic flourish.