If ever there were a DJ whose act was tailor-made for MSG’s Sphere in Las Vegas, it’s Anyma. Since bursting onto the EDM scene as a solo act apart from the duo Tale of Us, the artist known as Matteo Milleri has made a name for himself by expanding the genre’s boundaries as a medium for audio-visual magic. The surreal, pseudo-dystopian tales of humanoids—born of both nature and machine—set to pulse-pounding house and techno beats from Anyma’s Genesys albums have become a global sensation over the last year-plus. That reputation for the spectacular has only deepened over the course of Anyma’s relatively brief residency at Sphere, which runs through New Year’s Day and returns again on January 10th and 11th.

As just the fifth musical act to take the stage inside Sphere, Anyma still had plenty of opportunity to push the envelope of what is possible with 185,000 speakers mounted among millions of LEDs, and as the first EDM act to do so, there was a purpose in planting such an impressive flag for the genre on this, of all platforms. But unlike  U2, Phish, Dead & Company, and Eagles, Anyma didn’t have to devise a spectacle from whole cloth. Instead, he and his team at Afterlife took much of his existing show and scaled it up for the first-of-its-kind medium that Sphere provides—and, boy, did it ever scale.

The show, entitled “The End of Genesys,” was split into four acts: Genesys, Humana, The End of Genesys, and Quantum. Each featured various android and humanoid characters towering more stories above Matteo, and in more vivid detail than ever before. During the final act, one of them even morphed into a monstrously-sized, on-screen version of Matteo himself. These characters took the audience on journeys through various environs—from rocket-boosted leaps into outer space and whimsical hidden grottos, to shimmering forests and playa-like desert scapes—not to mention the various encasings (glass, womb, and otherwise) from which some of these haunting figures burst forth.

There were creepy woodland creatures and emotive robots, swirling tsunamis of human bodies, even gold-clad angels descending on a court of thrones to a remix of The Weeknd’s “Blinded By the Light”. At one point, the singing head of electro pop star Ellie Goulding became the subject of some eerily creative manipulation. The crowd’s excitement truly peaked, though, when FKA twigs emerged to sing live on Anyma’s remix of “Eusexua”. All the while, a supersized version of a scantily clad FKA twigs performed an interpretive dance on the Sphere screen.

Related: Videos From Anyma At Sphere Show The Bar Has Been Raised [Watch]

In each case, these characters appeared as parts of scenes that built and built, just like the tracks to which they were set. Unlike previous tenants of Sphere, Anyma’s beats were precisely timed and attuned to the visuals (or was it vice versa?), with the drops often matching escalations in the scenery. Rather than the visuals serving merely as an entertaining backdrop to the music, in Anyma’s case, the two foremost facets of the Sphere experience were melded together as one. Throw in the thumping bass and in-seat haptics that rumbled with the action on screen, and Anyma made use of just about every sensory technology Sphere wields.

More importantly, he did so in service of evoking a wide range of emotions. The music and art combined to create heartstring-tugging scenes of love and loss, trial and triumph. Like every scene—including journeys through richly imagined worlds and up close to giant androids (set to a remix of “Turn Off The Lights,” no less)—those inspired awe and wonder in the audience.

By overloading multiple senses with abundant stimuli, Anyma and Afterlife managed to create a wonderfully elevated feeling of equilibrium throughout the building. It was as though the best (and only) option for enjoyment was to surrender wholly and completely to the experience before those inside, which, in some respects, made this show one best enjoyed with a rear end planted in a seat, defying the “D” for “dance” in EDM—and despite what bangers like “The Sign”, “Pictures of You”, “Hear Me Now”, “Syren”, and “Eternity” would normally inspire.

To be sure, there were plenty of times throughout the performance when revelers could let loose as they would at any other rave. Those moments between vignettes, often extended, were expertly timed to allow attendees to dance in the aisles without distraction. At others, Matteo’s color-lit, lifted stage and the choreographed robot arms on either side of him created a more localized tableau for fans to enjoy. In that way, despite the overall overwhelm, The End of Genesys was still eminently digestible and enjoyable, with an appropriate interplay of tension and release.

All told, the nearly two-hour show (closer to four hours, if you count the energizing opening sets by Chris Avantgarde b2b Rebuke and Amelie Lens) expanded both minds and the bounds of what is now possible in live entertainment. At Sphere, the only limit may well be that of the human imagination. Fortunately, even that continues to expand, thanks in no small part to masterpieces like Anyma’s The End of Genesys.

Check out more clips from Anyma’s Sphere residency here. The New Year’s run is sold out, but tickets are still available for additional shows on January 10th and 11th. Find tickets on Ticketmaster or try the secondary market.