 Marking a new dawn in British progressive-trance, his precision-built, evocative electronic soundscapes have fast found the ears of many of the scene’s leading lights. Prog maestros like Sasha, Nick Warren & Dave Seaman are ardent supporters, and his Black Hole/FRIS track ‘Chasing Rainbows’ made converts of trance legionnaires like Ferry Corsten and Gareth Emery. No less a talent behind a pair of turntables, he has become the warm up man-of-choice for some of the biggest names one the scene. In the last month of 2009 alone he supported Calvin Harris and Paul Oakenfold on their respective UK tours. 2010 is going to make Ad Brown an impossible-to-miss presence.
 In the competitive world of trance production, Slovenian Martin ‘Beltek’ Bijelić has hit the career fast-track with his tech/trance/prog audio hybrid. In 2007, with his freshman track ‘Copacabana’, Beltek pulled off his first musical coup. He engaged Pete Tong with the track to such an extent that it became the winner of his New Producer of the Year competition. From such promising beginnings, at hurricane pace, he has delivered one twisting imaginative floor-charger after another. To date he has now recorded and remixed for (amongst others) Black Hole’s Avanti label, Armada’s Pilot6 and Electronic Elements imprints, the UK’s Maelstrom Records & Canada’s classic Nettwerk imprint.
 Part man, part futuristic music creating machine (and all grin!), Cliff has spent the last 48 months beaming out his advanced dance message direct from the Coenraad home planet … Earth’s dancefloors have never been quite the same since. Both under his own name and through a matrix of pseudonyms, monikers and collaborative handles, Cliff has twisted and re-imagined the trance genre into his own, fresh off-world sound and in doing so he’s drawn a raft of support from the planet dance’s biggest DJs. He’s a key member of the Dutch ‘Trance Generation 2.0’ collective – a highly individual producer amongst a tightly knit and forward-thinking contingent.
 Hailing from the flatlands of Dordrecht, Southern Holland, Daniel Wanrooy has been influencing the playlists of some of the world’s top DJs for over 7 years. Both as one half of highly-lauded duos Progression & Odyssee and as a standalone artist, his evocative, imaginative music has successfully cross-bred virtually every sub-genre of trance. In 2009 he’s taken on the role of the Comeback Kid, with a succession of floor-storming tracks and one big In Trance We Trust compilation. That’s set to continue as (one of the winners of Trance.nu 'who plays?' poll) he prepares to take to the Future Stage of 2010’s Trance Energy.
 Representing Belgium in our 2010 Hot List is Franz ‘Fast Distance’ Hlusek. Much as we’d love to have been the first institution to pick him out from the crowd, rather a lot of DJs have already beaten us to it! Armin, Judge Jules, Aly & Fila, Daniel Kandi and Sied van Riel among them. Roger Shah went as far as naming Fast Distance as his Breakthrough Producer of 2009 in his Top 100 DJs interview. Through his releases on VANDIT, Magic Island, Nu-Depth, Conspiracy and Shah Music he’s quickly come of age and there’s plenty more to come this year.
 He was the man behind ‘Lillith’ - one of the most standout progressive tracks of last year. If it happened to pass you by, you really have missed something special! A trancer of remarkable depth and sophistication, it picked up the 5/5 ‘Money Shot’ accolade in DJ Magazine (who called it “audio-excellence” and said it delivered a “lump-in-the-throat climax”). ‘Organum’ (with its remix from fellow countryman Dino Lenny) quickly followed and with it a request for Gai Barone remix came hot in its tail from Markus Schulz (who also named him as one of the top 5 newcomers of 2009).
 He’s the man behind that remix of Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’ – the one (lest you haven’t seen it) that prompted Woody van Eyden to give possibly the DJing performance of 2009 and had Tiesto closing set after set with it over the summer. Guy is no bootleg-only merchant though. Armin has already made his 'Sunbeam' track Single of the Week on ASOT and with tracks and remixes already on Armada, Black Hole, Perfecto, Spinnin' and Discover, he's going to be a contender in the year to come.
 Every single month of last year Jordan Suckley’s profile grew exponentially larger. Due to? Well where do you begin... His deck-wizardry is probably as good a place as any as his 3 turntables, FX units & scratching talents have delighted crowds from his Goodgreef residency all the way to the six or so festivals he’s rocked - Creamfields among them. He also sits in the label manager chair at Goodgreef’s record label & recently scored a couple of Trackitdown no.1s (most recently with his 'From Paradise' track). Beatport also nominated as a ‘one to watch in 2009’ and both Eddie Halliwell and John O’Callaghan marked him as their Breakthrough Producer in their Top 100 interviews. 2010 stands at his feet!
 Time and time again we hear from the trance establishment that what they’re really on the look out for are upcoming producers that can do things differently! Enter stage right Maarten de Jong then – a man for whom originality is not in short supply. Over the last two years he’s successfully cross-bred the tech & melodic sciences to roaringly fine effect. The results have been explosive, with De Jong dividing up the spoils of ‘Life’s Too Short’, ‘Mono’ & ‘Antartica’ between Spinnin’s RR, Oxygen and DOORN imprints. ‘Click’ & ‘Anti Flu’ are soon set to follow, and in 2010 there’s unlikely to be a shortage of MDJ material out there and kicking it!
 Combining their forces last year has worked wonders for Willem van Hanegem & Wardt van der Harst. Hailing from the fertile trance grounds of Breda, they started making waves as separate entities (Willem under his own name and Wardt as Re-Ward) throughout the 08 season. It was 2009 though that they began to turn the waves into a mini tsunami with tracks like 'Mainstage', ‘System Overload’ & ‘The Plan’. Armin has them marked down as "one of the hottest upcoming producers of the moment" and this year clubbers from around the world will get to witness that in full effect for themselves as they let rip on the Future Stage of Trance Energy.
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