THUMP UK's Tracks of the Year

In dance music, the single is still king. It doesn't matter that there's no more Woolworths and that the three track CD bundled with two terrible remixes is a dead medium: we still have a rapacious appetite for single-servings of music. It doesn't matter if it comes on shiny black wax from Katrina or from a download code – they all counted towards this ballot.

Now that you've digested our global 100 most vital tracks of the year, we thought we'd give you a glimpse into our UK team's personal selections. Here's twelve months worth of the best dance music out there.

9. Delroy Edwards - "Can U Get With"

Son of Hellboy and noise house connoisseur Edwards killed the latter part of the year with this absurdly replayable Moodymann does G-Funk number. Riding on top of a rhythm track straight out of a vintage David Morales sweatbox banger, "Can U Get With" throws together a pitch-shifted vocal that wouldn't sound out of place in the glory days of UKG with a lolloping, looped, phased chord and what sounds like a melodic car alarm.

7. Hannah Wants and Chris Lorenzo - "Rhymes"

Even if the name isn't immediately familiar you've probably listened to many more of Chris Lorenzo's productions than you know. Lorenzo has spent the last few years working as a ghost producer, putting out 200 tracks a year by his own count. On "Rhymes", however, Lorenzo gets his due together with fellow Midlands DJ Hannah Wants. That's not to understate Want's role, who co-produced the track: her expertise as a selector in the bassier end of house has clearly given her an ear for fashioning one the year's best basslines.

6. Head High - "Megatrap"

When it comes to creating club tracks, René Pawlowitz, takes what you might describe as a utilitarian approach. His

Megatrap

EP got the two essentials bang right: pummeling kickdrums and heavy bass across its nine tracks. One of the standouts, was opener "Hex Factor", with its bludgeoning 4x4 thud and quickfire breaks transcended by those euphoric shimmering synths.

5. Dat Oven - "Icy Lake"

Listening to Dat Oven's "Icy Lake" it's astonishing to think that it was originally released back in 1998, sounding as it does, so in step with current trends. Fade to Mind producer Total Freedom stumbled across the track on YouTube, instantly recognising some shared sensibility between "Icy Lake" and his label's releases. Both Night Slugs' L-Vis 1990 and Dj Rashad contributed remixes to the rerelease but it's Total Freedom's that is the single's highlight. Freedom's edit turns what was already an unsettling track in something altogether darker and harsher.

4. Sticky ft. General Levy - "Pull Up"

3. Anthony Naples - "More Problem"

Thankfully 2014 has seen the near extinction of the term "outsider house" but the genre's stars shine on, churning out a near endless supply of spit-soaked, trodden-on, calloused and bruised tracks. New York native Naples' only release this year was The Trilogy Tapes backed

Zipacon

, the highlight of which was this ourageously massive earworm, a track that sounded like Eric Prydz's "Pjaano" taken down a few dark alleys in an unfamiliar city and left to fend for itself. Black note piano house perfection.

1. SOPHIE - "Lemonade"

ADDITIONAL SHOUT OUTS TO THE FOLLOWING TRACKS/EPs
Ricoshei - "Perfect Like You"
Todd Terje - "Strandbar (Disko)"
Sketches from an Island - "Baby Come Home"
Partial Arts - "Taifa (Emperor Machine Extended Mix)"
DJ Octopus - "Smack My Pitch Up"
Willie Burns - "I Wanna Love You"
Floorplan - "Never Grow Old (Re-Plant)"
House of Spirits - "Holding On"
Andras Fox - "Rock On"
Shackleton - "Freezing Opening Thawing"
Evian Christ - "Waterfall"
Killing Sound - Killing Sound
Powell - "Club Music"
Call Super - "Depicta/Acephale II"
Beneath - "Vobes"
M.E.S.H. - Scythians EP
Bok Bok - "Your Charizmatic Self"
Finn - "Keep Calling"
Dopplereffekt/Objekt - "Hypnagogia"
Bloom - "Hydraulics"
Mumdance - "Take Time"
QT - "Hey QT"
Sampha - "Too Much / Happens"
DJ Rashad - "We On 1"
Dark0 - "Fate"
Murlo - "Into Mist"
Hodge - "Mind Games"