What else could it have been?

Our top track of 2015 was a shoo-in for the top spot from the moment it was released, but we've wound up with plenty of surprises elsewhere. It's not often, for example, we have a track with (at the time of writing) 366 million YouTube views. Or that a two-and-a-half-minute cover of a '60s rocksteady tune makes the list. And we've got fair few tracks with no beats at all. Sounds like a good year, right?

- 50.
- Bjarki
  I Wanna Go Bang
  Trip
  
  This breakthrough track from the Icelandic newcomer was one of 2015's definitive techno anthems.

- 49.
- Errorsmith & Mark Fell
  Protogravity
  PAN
  
  Atmospheric beat science from one of the year's most surprising collaborations.

- 48.
- Kowton
  Glock & Roll
  Whities
  
  Arriving at the tail end of 2014, this roller from Kowton still has plenty of momentum a year later.

- 47.
- Max_M
  Architectural Lie
  M_REC LTD
  
  "Architectural Lie" is the kind of track techno DJs drool over. Very little happens across its six minutes, but that's the point. Max_M, who very sadly passed away from cancer earlier this year, was a master DJ with a knack for taking dancers a few steps further down the rabbit hole. Simple to mix, full-bodied and energetic—few techno tracks were more effective this year than "Architectural Lie."

- 46.
- Porn Sword Tobacco
  Kristallisering
  Aniara Recordings
  
  It's hard to go wrong with a fat broken beat and big piano stabs, as Gothenburg's Porn Sword Tobacco showed us.

- 45.
- Nick Höppner
  Relate (The Black Madonna Remix)
  Ostgut Ton
  
  2015 was Marea Stamper's breakthrough year as a DJ, but this remix reminded us that she's also a killer producer. With her version of "Relate," she turned Nick Höppner's slow and steady house groover into a techno barnstormer. It was well manicured and perfectly paced, picking up steam and then letting it off in all the right places—the type of arrangement that comes from someone who knows the dance floor like the back of her hand.

- 44.
- Howling
  Signs (Rødhåd Remix)
  Monkeytown Records
  
  A masterclass in how to make a vocal tune work on techno's darkest dance floors, Rødhåd's remix made Ry Cuming's voice sound even more haunting.

- 43.
- Galcher Lustwerk
  I Neva Seen
  Lustwerk Music
  
  It may have taken two years for "I Neva Seen" to hit wax, but this understated house bomb still sounded fresh when it finally dropped.

- 42.
- Stanislav Tolkachev
  Optical Illusions
  Gost Instrument
  
  A highlight of Tolkachev's prolific and often surprising year, "Optical Illusions" proved you don't always need a kick drum to make a propulsive techno anthem.

- 41.
- Asusu
  Serra
  Impasse
  
  "Serra" signalled Asusu's departure from Livity Sound, but its twisty synth lines and broken drum pattern retained the best parts of the label's sound.

- 40.
- Thundercat
  Them Changes
  Brainfeeder
  
  At the heart of his mournful mini-album, The Beyond/Where The Giants Roam, LA's Thundercat snuck in a pop gem. "Them Changes" was like one of Herbie Hancock's jazz-funk epics distilled into a three-and-a-half-minute shimmy through the stages of grief—at once injured, bewildered, hopeful and resolute. (The keyboard legend did in fact appear elsewhere on the record.) "Them Changes" was the sound of an accomplished, multifaceted artist bringing jazz's rich history back into the contemporary conversation.

- 39.
- Melchior Productions Ltd
  Liquid Moves
  Aspect Music
  
  It was anyone's guess what the voice in "Liquid Moves" was saying, but the track's magnetism was undeniable.

- 38.
- Ge-ology
  Moon Circuitry
  Sound Signature
  
  Brooklyn house vet Gerard Young dusted off his Ge-ology alias for a new record this year, delivering this cosmic and funky deep house jam.

- 37.
- Four Tet
  Morning Side
  Text Records
  
  Four Tet's A-side from Morning/Evening was less a track than a 20-minute mini-epic.

- 36.
- map.ache
  The Golden Age (feat. Mr. Hirsch)
  Giegling
  
  The title track from map.ache's Giegling debut tapped into a house music sweet spot, where rhythms are fluid, grooves are loose and warmth is the key.

- 35.
- Grimes
  Flesh Without Blood
  4AD
  
  An outrageously catchy "diss track about a false friend," "Flesh Without Blood" embodied the intimacy and fearlessness that makes Grimes so good.

- 34.
- Merle
  Mimi Likes 2 Dance
  Stripped & Chewed
  
  "Mimi Likes 2 Dance" is a '90s disco floor-filler from Virgo Four's Merwyn Sanders, rewritten as a love letter to his wife. Impressively, it's as good as that makes it sound.

- 33.
- Melodie
  Acid Sunday
  Metereze
  
  With its understated elegance and subtle afterhours flair, this lean cut of acid helped announce Melodie as yet another Romanian producer to watch.

- 32.
- Nisennenmondai
  B-1 (Shackleton Remix)
  Woe To The Septic Heart
  
  It's hard not to be intrigued by the idea of Shackleton remixing Nisennenmondai, an avant-garde band known for brutally minimalist compositions played on drums, bass and guitar. This year's remix EP on Woe To The Septic Heart did not disappoint. Combining the Japanese trio's tensely linear rhythms with the UK producer's otherworldly palette (throbbing basslines, strobing organs, surreal soundscapes) the B-side in particular was a synthesis of styles as unlikely as it was electrifying.

- 31.
- The Galleria
  Calling Card
  Environ Records
  
  Immaculate, neon-tinted, catchy-as-hell pop crossover—with Morgan Geist and Jessy Lanza in the studio together, could it have gone any other way?

- 30.
- Gesloten Cirkel
  Chasing Away The Night
  Murder Capital
  
  Another slice of slamming electro from one of the best in the business.

- 29.
- Domenique Dumont
  L'Esprit de l'Escalier
  Antinote
  
  Synthy, summery electronica par excellence from one of 2015's out-of-the-blue successes.

- 28.
- PLO Man
  Nearly Invisible
  Acting Press
  
  "Nearly Invisible," with its wafer-thin textures and intimate sense of atmosphere, revealed more the longer you spent with it.

- 27.
- Kornél Kovács
  Pantalón
  Numbers
  
  There's a silliness to "Pantalón." It was those retro drums, the camp bassline, the nonsensical Spanish lyrics ("Broken trousers. Shouting. I'm going to distribute")—even the artwork was garish in a cute sort of way. It all came together for the Swedish producer's most free-spirited record to date, a track as suited to 6 AM dance floors as it was to house parties.

- 26.
- Sound Stream
  Bass Affairs
  Sound Stream
  
  Will Frank Timm's tried and tested formula ever grow old? Based on his latest cut of slamming disco house, it would seem not.

- 25.
- Mariah
  Shinzo No Tobira
  Palto Flats
  
  The reissue of Mariah's rare LP Utakata No Hibi was a revelation (thanks Palto Flats), but this sweetly solemn single, long since a favourite among diggers like Lexx, remained its most mesmerizing track.

- 24.
- Korridor
  Taotast
  Northern Electronics
  
  The Northern Electronics brand of techno is deep and highly textured, but you'll still find high-energy gems like "Taotast" dotted throughout its catalogue. Half-techno, half-progressive house, this sprawling 12-minute epic might be the most expansive track the continually classy Stockholm label has dished out. Built with a heavily broken beat and layers of dazzling synths, it was a spellbinding club tune that paired intensity with Northern Electronics' trademark sense of depth. (Good luck trying to beatmatch with it, though.)

- 23.
- Leif
  Life Through Analogies
  Idle Hands
  
  Welsh producer Leif Knowles hit a career high-point with this dreamlike broken-beat house track.

- 22.
- Skepta
  Shutdown
  Boy Better Know
  
  Grime's current leading man turned in the scene's biggest anthem of 2015.

- 21.
- Edward
  Birds
  Giegling
  
  Nearly a year on from his excellent Into A Better Future LP, this hazy cut of not-quite-club music showed Gilles Aiken's sound continuing to blossom.

- 20.
- Kassem Mosse, Simone White
  Flowers In May
  Honest Jon's Records
  
  Until this year, Gunnar Wendel's only big vocal cut was the A1 on Workshop 12 ("-ensuality..., -ensuality..., -ensuality...," etc.). That's just one way in which Three Versions, an EP on Honest Jon's that reinterpreted music by the singer-songwriter Simone White, expanded on his sound. While the rest of the record departed from Wendel's typical style altogether, "Flowers In May" used one of his skeletal rhythms to transform this ghostly pop song into a strange and seductive house track.

- 19.
- Eric Prydz
  Opus (Four Tet Remix)
  Virgin Records
  
  From Four Tet publicly asking to do the remix, to the seven-minute breakdown, everything about this tune was audacious.

- 18.
- Donato Dozzy
  Cassandra
  Claque Musique
  
  "Cassandra" is really just two or three notes and some of Dozzy's signature ultra-light sound design, but it's mesmerising.

- 17.
- Powell
  Sylvester Stallone
  XL Recordings
  
  There's a bit in the 2008 Rambo film where Sylvester Stallone rips open a guy's throat with his bare hands. The scene is only slightly more intense than this track.

- 16.
- Suzanne Kraft
  Flatiron
  Melody As Truth
  
  With "Flatiron," Suzanne Kraft used ebowed guitar and chilltronica drums to produce one of the loveliest songs of the year.

- 15.
- Jack U
  Where Are Ü Now (feat. Justin Bieber)
  Atlantic Records
  
  "Where Are Ü Now" made equivalent lists in Rolling Stone, FACT, The New York Times and Pitchfork, which was no doubt thanks to its "dolphin."

- 14.
- Florist
  Marine Drive
  All Caps
  
  "See the puddles? Isn't it wonderful? It's my home." Named for the street that hugs Vancouver’s coastline, "Marine Drive"—with its pouring rain and warm organs—somehow made the "Canadian Riviera" strain of house sound even more like Vancouver. Taking clichéd samples like the Yeah! Woo! break and making them as reassuring as a warm wool coat, "Marine Drive" was the overcast autumn counterpart to Mood Hut's beachside summertime jams.

- 13.
- Levon Vincent
  Launch Ramp To The Sky
  Novel Sound
  
  We look to Levon Vincent for distilled rave moments that give dance floors an almost spiritual sense of purpose, and with "Launch Ramp To The Sky" he reached those heights again.

- 12.
- Bicep
  Just
  Aus Music
  
  Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best, which is sure as hell true of "Just." Bicep's biggest tune in recent memory turned a choppy break and two unforgettable synth lines into a track that lifted dance floors off the ground.

- 11.
- Tapes
  Somebodies Baby
  Workshop
  
  "Somebodies Baby" wasn't only the "catchiest thing Workshop's ever released," but one of the most infectious two-and-a-half minutes heard anywhere this year.

- 10.
- Dude Energy
  Renee Running
  Animals Dancing
  
  It speaks to Diego Herrera's talent that he has two tracks in our top 20 and they aren't even remotely similar. While "Flatiron," produced as Suzanne Kraft, was a perfect post-party wind-down moment, "Renee Running," produced as Dude Energy, was the standout track from the club you'd just come home from. Herrera has a signature style (his RA podcast in February made this clear) and it was out in force on "Renee Running," the whole thing bristling with the energy of a live jam as the loose and infectious melody did its thing up top.

- 09.
- Call Super
  Migrant
  Houndstooth
  
  As Call Super, JR Seaton excels at making all kinds of techno. This year's bomb, "Migrant," was arguably his most accessible effort to date, matching wispy atmospheres and a slinky melody to a bumpin' bassline. Lean yet brimming with emotion, it was tough enough for techno DJs and groovy enough for the house heads, which is maybe why it wound up in so many sets. But there was another reason, too: it was the kind of transcendental club weapon that stayed with you for days.
- 08.
- Tony Allen
  African Man (Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer Remix)
  Jazz Village
  
  Call this one a meeting of the masterminds: Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen's exuberant "African Man" dismantled and rebuilt by two legends in their own right. As long and eccentric as anything with their name on it, Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer's remix was a slinky 12-minute groove that unfolded with sly shifts. That labyrinthine xylophone at minute two, the funky bass squiggle busting out the gate three later, Allen's horn section appearing in the breakdown, those claps taking a step to the left—in these hands every new wrinkle was a revelation.
- 07.
- Demdike Stare
  Patchwork
  Modern Love
  
  "Patchwork" was the B-side from the seventh (and final) Testpressing, a series that did foul and degrading things to jungle, industrial and ambient. The track was loosely based on Wookie's sugary 2000 garage cut "What's Going On?"—although amid the violent editing, ridiculous bassline and chaotic drums you might have been getting down too hard to tell. Club music deconstructions were rife in 2015, but few did it as convincingly as this.
- 06.
- Willow
  Feel Me
  Workshop
  
  It's hard choosing a favorite from Workshop 21, but one was guaranteed to work every time. "Feel Me" is understated—just some wispy vocals, tightly wound drums and off-kilter chords—but incisive, and to hear it was to have it lodged in your head for the rest of the weekend. It was hardly a cheap trick, though. Willow's first tune to see official release stands with the best music this consistently excellent label has released.
- 05.
- DJ Koze
  XTC
  Pampa
  
  Leave it to the evergreen Stefan Kozalla to craft one of 2015's most-played tracks. The German hit-machine's music has appeared in this list three years running, but you won't find many of the usual chart-topping hallmarks in his work—breakdowns, drums rolls, thumping beats. Instead, this track gave us delicate melodies and understated beauty. Bittersweet, melancholic and utterly blissful—"XTC" was all of these and more.
- 04.
- Kelela
  Rewind
  Warp Records
  
  In 2013 there was "Bank Head," and two years later Kelela and Kingdom are still dropping bombs. But "Rewind" burst out of the LA singer's Hallucinogen EP like a secret weapon; we already knew how well she did smoky, leftfield R&B, so this '80s-indebted pop stepper added an unexpected layer to her sound. Keeping to her airy vocal style and intimate lyrics, Kelela boldly claimed the space for herself, matching Kingdom and Nugget's lithe production as she spoke to the club and radio alike. "Rewind" was the standout on an excellent EP and the mark of an underground artist setting her sights on crossover success.
- 03.
- Fit Siegel
  Carmine
  Fit
  
  "It's so good that I am literally crying naked under a table while listening to this," is how one Discogs commenter summarised their experience with Fit Siegel's 2015 masterpiece. We might stop short of that, but PuchBot was not far off. The Detroit polymath brewed up one of the year's most emotionally rich singles, with a pad melody that gets under your skin and an electro-tinged beat that felt classic from the moment the needle touched the groove.
- 02.
- Jack J
  Thirstin'
  Future Times
  
  There's always been something cozy and personal about the music of Mood Hut, which is probably what makes it so instantly loveable. Every time we heard "Thirstin'"—and we heard it a lot, whether it was in a packed loft on Hastings Street in Vancouver or a dance floor somewhere in East London—it felt like Jack Jutson was singing to each person individually. Like lots of the best dance tracks, "Thirstin'" united everyone in the same beautiful, intimate moment.
- 01.

Fatima Yamaha
What's A Girl To Do
Dekmantel
Our favourite track from this year is deceptive in a number of ways. For starters, it's not really from this year. It first came out in 2004 on the Dublin label D1 Recordings, and remained a minor cult favourite until Dekmantel and Magnetron Music reissued it this past July. It's also not, as you may have assumed, by a woman: Fatima Yamaha is a Dutch man named Bas Bron.

But more importantly, "What's A Girl To Do" is a piece of music that's more deep and affecting than it seems at first pass. Yes, it's a great final track of the night, and that faux-sax line is one of the catchiest things you'll ever hear. But there's something else that gives this track its extraordinary staying power—the quality that made it, as Angus Finlayson said, "one of dance music's most pronounced sleeper hits." Call it a sense of drama, at once utterly genuine and slightly tongue-in-cheek, something suggested by the sombre chords and weeping melody and made complete by Scarlett Johansson's cameo in the breakdown. "I just don't know what I'm supposed to be," she says. "I'm stuck. Does it get easier?"

With that line from Lost In Translation, this electro earworm became a poignant slow-burner about a highly relatable existential crisis. How serious was it? It's hard to say, but that ambiguity only added to the track's allure. Those who knew it have already been hitting repeat for 11 years. The rest of us have only just started.

This poll is decided by the votes of RA staff members and current contributors.