Psytrance Right Now: Israel Holds the Core, Vini Vici Holds the Crown

DJ Radar's board tracks 1,014 DJs, and psytrance's top eight tell a clear story. There's no scramble for the top spot. There's one clear leader with a tightly bunched group behind.

Vini Vici holds No. 1 with a credit score of 914 on 11,085 votes. It's the only name in the genre's top eight above 10,000 votes. Astrix follows on 879 with 7,935 votes.

The 35-point gap between first and second is wider than the whole spread from second to eighth. That spread runs from 879 down to 847, so 32 points cover seven places. The top spot looks settled, and every place below it is still in play.

Ask what defines psytrance's current leadership, and the board answers with geography. Four of the top eight are listed under Israel: Vini Vici, Astrix, Infected Mushroom and Bliss. Names listed under Israel also take all three podium places.

The rest of the top eight comes from four other countries: Neelix (Germany), Mandragora (Mexico), Liquid Soul (Switzerland) and E-Type (Sweden). That's five countries across eight places, and all eight list Psy-Trance as their main genre. The reach is international, but the center of gravity is not.

The sharpest race in the top eight is for No. 3. Infected Mushroom sits third on 871, and Neelix is fourth on 870, one point behind.

The votes point the other way. Neelix has 7,210 to Infected Mushroom's 7,199, an 11-vote edge that hasn't produced a higher credit score. On this board, credit score and vote count clearly don't move in lockstep.

Mandragora is another example. Fifth on 862, Mandragora has 7,558 votes, the third-highest total among the leaders and more than either of the two names directly above. Bliss holds sixth on 857 with 6,541 votes, the lowest count in the group.

At the bottom of the top eight, Liquid Soul and E-Type are level on 847. Liquid Soul is listed seventh with 7,556 votes, and E-Type is eighth with 6,587.

Platform figures add context, but they don't decide anything here.

Vini Vici reports 3,048,264 Spotify monthly listeners and 735,149 Instagram followers. Infected Mushroom has the group's largest Spotify follower count at 835,366.

Astrix posts 1,380,000 YouTube subscribers and 481,389 SoundCloud followers. Among leaders with those stats on file, those are the top figures on both platforms.

Mandragora has 822,499 Spotify monthly listeners, second in the group, and 801,000 YouTube subscribers. Neelix brings 754,118 monthly listeners and 366,484 SoundCloud followers. Liquid Soul has 466,268 monthly listeners and 167,013 SoundCloud followers.

With 32 points spread across seven places, a strong voting run could reshuffle positions two through eight. Moving Vini Vici is harder. A 35-point lead and a vote total more than 3,000 clear of the next name make No. 1 the steadiest position on the psytrance board.