40.
The bangers never stop flying out of the Equiknoxx camp, and ‘Elephant Man’ was without doubt one of their best for 2020. Over producer Gavsborg’s minimalist dancehall instrumental, Time Cow and RTKal celebrate the “refreshing ‘burlesque’ flair” that dancehall legend Elephant Man brought to the Kingston scene when he broke through in the early 2000s.Time Cow RTKalElephant ManEquiknoxx Music
39.
Iceland’s entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest had all the right ingredients for a classic of the genre: disco beat, infectious melody, funny video, bespoke dance routine. With this year’s competition having been cancelled and it being announced that new songs will be selected for next year, Daði Freyr, frankly, was robbed.Dai Freyr (Dai Gagnamagni)Think About ThingsAwal
38.
What with COVID meaning there’s no clubs in which to expose oneself to the juddering battery of Perc’s ever heavy sets, you might have expected Ali Wells’ trademark bang and crunch to sound surplus to requirements, like designing a really nifty nuclear bomber just after the signing of a miraculous global peace treaty. But actually, ‘Fire In Negative’ showcases Perc’s skill in writing tracks that are as mischievous and cheeky as they are piledrivers, providing a much needed homeopathic dose of the rave sweat on more than a few occasions in 2020.PercFire In NegativePerc Trax
37.
Escape velocity breaks and id scrambling pure acid tones, smash an escape path out of the hardcore continuum and emerge, blinking, into the dappled sunshine of reverberant synthesised future landscapes.SquarepusherTerminal SlamWarp
36.
This track is a marvel, beginning with a breathy, wordless vocal line over heavenly flourishes of harp before Joshua Idehen’s vocals appear slowly and subtly, raising gradually in power until they become overwhelming. He recounts losing his head, the shadows running across his bed, and the time he considered stepping in front of a train. It’s vulnerable and raw, but also purge-like and triumphant.CalabashedOde To Jazzman John ClarkePurple City Soufflé
35.
Junglepussy’s latest album, Jp4, is an expression of pure charisma from one of the most magnetic MCs of her generation, and never does she sound more intensely magnetic than on this potent, swaggering single.JunglepussyMain AttractionJagjaguwar
34.
Following on from the rattling, messed up and creepy lullaby of her first ever release ‘The Letter L’, ‘Love Like Lasers’ is a total banger – think Gazelle Twin at her most dance floor friendly and you’ll be halfway there.CurrentmoodgirlLove Like LasersSelf-Released
33.
‘Suite Pour L’Insivible’, the gorgeously arresting lead track from Ana Roxanne’s second album, Because Of A Flower, sees the artist channel the vulnerable vocal act of Kranky label mate Grouper. As she wordlessly coos through the track’s opening minutes, it’s impossible not to be completely enthralled by every note.Ana RoxanneSuite Pour L’InvisibleKranky
32.
Lifted from Napalm Death’s sixteenth studio album, the skewed grooves of ‘Amoral’ see the long-standing Killing Joke influence emerge fully in emphatic fashion, with Barney Greenway rivalling Jaz Coleman in his rabble rousing delivery,Napalm DeathAmoralCentury Media
31.
PREGOBLIN released three outstanding singles in 2020, but ‘Gangsters’ is the best of the bunch, its grandiose Western sweep juxtaposed with its lyrics about longing not to be skint. Alex Sebley and Jessica Winter remain masters of their own theatricality.PregoblinGangstersSelf-Released
30.
On Jessy Lanza’s first solo single in four years, the ’80s soul sheen that permeated much of her 2016 album Oh No returns. Built around a refrain of “Once I’m spinning, I can’t stop spinning,” it’s pleasingly catchy and yet typically subtle, carried through by Lanza’s trademark feather-light vocals.Jessy LanzaLick In HeavenHyperdub
29.
2020 was the year Perfume Genius released his masterpiece, the glistening and widescreen Set My Heart On Fire Immediately. The record takes in the breadth and depth of human emotion and maximalises it, never more powerfully than on this sublimely warm and divinely danceable single.Perfume GeniusOn The FloorMatador
28.
Listening to ‘Snail’ is a little bit like hearing small children make up jokes: confoundingly surreal, deliriously stupid, yet somehow utterly compelling.BeneeSnailRepublic
27.
Not content with simply adding a quick verse to Megan Thee Stallion’s J White Did It-produced hit, Beyoncé’s remix of ‘Savage’ is a full-blown reimagining of the original, with new verses from Megan too. Beyoncé’s presence elevates the original to a whole other level, demonstrating, as she has on a number of past occasions, that she can rap with the best of them, and have fun with it at the same time.Megan Thee StallionSavage (ft. Beyoncé)300 Entertainment
26.
A collaboration between two Total Refreshment Centre fixtures, The Comet Is Coming and Alabaster DePlume, Soccer96’s ‘I Was Gonna Fight Fascism’ is righteous and psychedelic, an absolutely intergalactic kosmische instrumental underpinned by jaw-dropping drums, with DePlume on vocals ripping apart every excuse you ever made for not standing up against the far right. “I was gonna fight fascism, but I just don’t think the left-right political spectrum really applies in the modern age,” he sings in a hilarious laissez-faire hipster snark.Soccer96I Was Gonna Fight Fascism (ft. Alabaster DePlume)Moshi Moshi
25.
An intoxicating siren song from what feels like unfathomable depths of weariness, below depression, below anxiety, below terror, below anger, sung by a character who balefully waits for the impossible in the form of a lightning strike while angels laugh at her. Just beautiful.Keeley ForsythStart AgainLeaf
24.
Emerging just as the UK was entering its first COVID-19 lockdown back in March, Dua Lipa’s second album, Future Nostalgia, offered a hint of light in the gloom that came with being holed up at home away from friends for weeks on end, and there’s no doubting that the album’s marriage of ridiculously catchy hooks and camp disco sheen shone brightest on single ‘Hallucinate’.Dua LipaHallucinateWarner
23.
“Push your tits up my arse/ Throw the shovel at the child.”Godspeed You! Peter AndreClubberMas O Menos
22.
There’s a fine compound of sweetness and harsh textures on ‘forever’, one of the singles on Charli XCX’s ‘lockdown album’ how i’m feeling now. It combines toothsome melodies with washes of static and gentle drums, thanks to AG Cook’s super-processed, GMO production. It’s fun to hear him playing with something a bit crustier, and there’s a pleasing intractability to those little Merzbow shudders that pop up throughout the track.Charli xcxforeverAtlantic
21.
On ‘Party’, PC Music’s only ‘band’ prove that the label/collective many still try to dismiss as a joke remain, nonetheless, amongst the finest purveyors of sonic sweetmeats. This may sound, on first glimpse, like it’s the Radio Dept covering some obscure early ’80s French pop hit, but my god it’s infectious.
