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Brooklyn-based electronic dance producer Andrew Bayer creates music aimed at headphones as well as the dancefloor. Influenced by Tiesto and Ferry Corsten, Bayer debuted in the late 2000s on his longtime home label, Anjunabeats. Early albums It's Artificial and If It Were You, We'd Never Leave incorporated multiple styles, including progressive house, downtempo, trip hop, and experimental ambient. In the 2010s, in addition to scoring multiple Grammy nominations, Bayer focused on solo singles and EPs, as well as Anjunabeats compilations. At the close of the decade, he returned to long-form releases with the pairing In My Last Life and In My Next Life.

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Bayer first became interested in electronic music thanks to big room DJs like Tiësto and Corsten. While attending the Berklee College of Music, Bayer's diverse taste in music increased along with his music-making skills, but his favorite record label remained the same: Anjunabeats. He sent the label demo after demo, and in 2010 they signed him and released The Taxi Driver EP on Beatport. He moved on to Anjunabeats proper for his 2011 debut album It's Artificial. The equally diverse If It Were You, We'd Never Leave followed in 2013 and peaked in the Top 20 on the Billboard Dance chart.

For the remainder of the decade, Bayer's solo material wound up on EPs and much of his attention shifted toward production for Above & Beyond. His efforts were rewarded in 2015 and 2018 when that group's We Are All We Need and Common Ground were nominated for Grammy Awards. He issued his third full-length, In My Last Life, in 2018; a remixed reworking, In My Next Life, arrived a year later. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & David Jeffries

San Franciscan trance duo Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden first appeared on the scene in 2001, at the peak of the U.S. electronica boom. Dresden was a DJ with 15 years' experience who had grown up on new wave, alternative, and industrial dance; Gabriel was a CalArts music graduate and computer wunderkind who had pioneered loop-based music composition with his software Mixman.

The pair met at the Miami Winter Music Conference, where Gabriel was handing out his debut single to DJs. Dresden passed the single to Pete Tong, for whom he was working as a talent scout; Tong loved it and played it on his show. When Tong later asked Dresden to do a remix for him, the DJ called up Gabriel to help him work on it, and their collaboration was born. The pair started out as remixers before releasing their debut single, "Lament," in 2002. The following year, they broke big with "As the Rush Comes," an international smash they recorded under the name Motorcycle, a trio with vocalist Jes. Their remix of "Beautiful Things," a track by Gabriel's side project Andain, also became a huge hit.

In 2004, Gabriel & Dresden signed to Nettwerk, featuring prominently on the label compilation Bloom, which they compiled and mixed. Their eponymous debut artist album was released in 2006. Showcasing their pop/rock-influenced, song-based style, it produced the hit singles "Tracking Treasure Down" and "Dangerous Power." The mix album Toolroom Knights, Vol. 2 followed in 2007. The duo took home the Best American DJ award at the Miami Winter Music Conference two years in a row before splitting amicably in 2008 to focus on solo careers.

They reunited in 2011, initially only for a series of festival appearances, but continued working together. That year they released the mix album Mixed for Feet, Vol. 1 through Armada. They continued to play live, host a monthly Internet radio show, and sporadically release singles before launching a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 so they could record a second album. Upon its completion, Gabriel & Dresden signed to Above & Beyond's Anjunabeats label for the record's release. Entitled The Only Road and issued in December 2017, it continued the song-based approach of its predecessor but featured a more retro, synth pop-inspired style. The duo also crowdfunded their third album, which arrived much quicker than their second. Remedy was released in 2020, once again through Anjunabeats. Recorded in their isolated studio in Spokane, Washington, it took inspiration from the calming power of nature and featured vocals from Sub Teal, Jan Burton, and Centre. ~ John D. Buchanan