The Best Electronic Music of 2022

The return of clubs and festivals this year meant that dance music finally felt like it was back to normal—not 2021’s “new normal” of tours on tenterhooks and will-they-won’t-they headliners, but the good-old normal-normal of closing down the joint at 6 a.m. with a floor-filling piano-house anthem. There was no shortage of supersized crowdpleasers to suit the mood, from Eliza Rose’s throwback garage to Two Shell’s chipmunk mischief to Nick León’s jugular-lunging spin on Venezuelan raptor house. On the margins, meanwhile, it really felt like all bets were off: Hagop Tchaparian found rave release in Armenian folk instruments; Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon returned from a long hiatus to strike yacht-rock gold with Panda Bear; and Ezmeralda and DJ Python dissolved the rhythms of cumbia and reggaeton into experimentally atmospheric new forms. The Soft Pink Truth winkingly titled his house epic Is It Going to Get Any Deeper Than This?; day after day, his peers responded in the affirmative.

Listen to selections from this list on our Spotify playlist and Apple Music playlist.

Check out all of Pitchfork’s 2022 wrap-up coverage here.

(All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our retail links, however, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission.)

Smugglers Way

Alan Braxe / DJ Falcon: “Step by Step” [ft. Panda Bear]

French house kingpins Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon made their long-awaited return on “Step by Step,” rolling out gentle waves of modular synths that sound like they come from an old AM radio. Panda Bear gives the duo’s subtle glow a narrative framework, singing about the aftermath of an idyllic past. But “Step by Step” is really about moving forward: The synths suddenly come alive, acoustic drums breathe momentum into the song’s sails, and Panda Bear—multi-tracked into an elated choir, and delivering the crown jewel of his already laudable 2022 discography—becomes a chorus of trusted advisors whose collective force, and copious repetitions, transform an old self-help chestnut into a life-changing belief system. –Evan Minsker

Listen: Alan Braxe / DJ Falcon, “Step by Step” [ft. Panda Bear]

XL

Arca: KicK iii

The centerpiece of a sprawling, five-album cycle, Arca’s KicK iii is a protean climax wedged between more focused experiments in squelching reggaeton and whispery ambient pop. Delving deep into the gnarled industrial textures of her back catalog, the record is governed more by mood than genre, embracing a diabolical temperament that blurs the lines between sadism and masochism. From the rubberized low end of “Señorita” to the nightcored hyperventilation that shakes “Skullqueen,” Arca gives into her most brutal impulses, turning the dancefloor into a brilliant, Boschian hellscape you won’t mind being banished to. –Jude Noel