San Holo

In a landscape of relentless four-on-the-floor, San Holo’s Tomorrowland 2018 offering is a welcome palate cleanser—a set built on glitching guitars, wistful melodies, and the kind of emotional electronic music that makes us feel things we’d rather not admit to at a festival. The vibe is more intimate, a pocket of heartfelt sentiment amidst the chaos, with visuals leaning into abstract art and nostalgic footage. This is future bass and melodic electronica at its most sincere. Technically, it’s a dynamic ride. The average BPM of 138.3 belies the variety, swinging from halftime hip-hop grooves to faster, euphoric passages.

The key of 12A dominates, giving many tracks a bright, hopeful quality. The energy profile (0.470 avg low, 0.431 avg mid) shows a focus on warm bass and detailed mid-range melodies, with the high end used for sparkling accents. Transitions are often dramatic, using silence and swelling reverb to punctuate the emotional shifts. The tracklist is deeply personal, heavily featuring his own productions. 'Victory' is an uplifting opener with its chopped vocal samples, while 'Fly' is an extended, beautiful journey piece that serves as the set’s heart.

His remix of 'The Next Episode' is a genius flip that never fails to get a roar. Tracks like 'I Still See Your Face' and 'forever free' with Duskus are tender, guitar-led moments that showcase his signature sound. It begins with the pulse of 'Raging Pulse,' builds to the cathartic peak of 'Fly,' and gently lands with the melancholic beauty of the Eastghost remix of 'Light'—a set that proves mainstages can have soul, not just drops.