Top House Tracks of the Last Decade

2020 is here and we’ve come to the end of another decade. The 2010s seemed to shoot past us in a flash of dance floor fist pumps, mega festivals, refined elders and the ascension of a new generation of producers and DJs who’ve injected the electronic music with fresh energy… plus of course, millions of new devotees to the culture.

House music has been at the centre of a worldwide renaissance of sorts, with electronic music moving from the underground in the 2000s into more of a mainstream position as the 2010s got into full swing. Superstars like Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler and many others from their generation helped to spark a new movement with young ravers all over the world attaching themselves to the scene and the industry growing exponentially year on year.

At the beginning of the 2010s there you’d find it hard to uncover a festival that was 100% focused on house music, now there are so many that punters find it hard to choose where to go. Likewise, in terms of artists and record labels, it’s almost reached saturation point. Ultimately this can only be good for the culture, more fans, more reach and more good times.

What follows below is an extensive playlist featuring some of the biggest and best house cuts from the past 10 years. It’s been an insane 10 years with thousands and thousands of tunes being produced and released from wave after wave of artists, from all over the world. From South America and South Africa to China, Korea, Japan, Australia, across the USA and Europe. So many styles, from Lee Burridge and his All Day I Dream crew who’ve cultivated an emotive, romantic and often spiritually-inclined sound through to pioneers like Larry Heard, whose deep house sound remains as timeless as ever.

By no means a definitive list, for that we’d need another 1,000 entries, but an insight into the decade that included ‘New 4 U’ By Andrés, Hot Natured’s chart-topping ‘Benediction’, instant classics like Peggy Gou’s ‘Starry Night’ and old hands like Mr. Fingers with ‘Qwazars’.

Listen out for Julio Bashmore, star of the early part of the decade with his breakthrough cut ‘Battle For Middle You’ a bass-heavy production that saw him launched into the limelight and appear on every big line up for at least the next five or so. Of course, it wasn’t just that tune alone that made him one of the most in-demand artists of the time, he followed up not long afterwards with ‘Au Seve’, which became even more of an anthem than ‘Battle For Middle You’. One of those tracks you would hear four or five times in a night, wherever you were – especially at festivals.

Bicep came through strong, breaking out with their retro-leaning house productions like ‘Stripper’ and ‘Vision Of Love’, which channelled their love for classic house. As we approached the end of the decade though, their sound evolved and matured, still retaining an air of sentimentality but now drawing from the UK rave era. The Belfast duo developed a stunning live show and wound up releasing their debut LP on Ninja Tune, the self-titled ‘Bicep’ in 2018. The music featured on the album fused old school motifs with a hybrid house and techno sound. Full of emotion, the album picked up rave (scuse the pun) reviews everywhere and took the duo’s status to the next level.

Omar S brought his A-game time and time again, seemingly every release knocked everyone’s socks off with its emotional depth and danceability. Just listen to the euphoria on ‘Here’s Your Trance, Now Dance!!’, it’s positively overflowing with jubilant energy. Then there’s the garage-influenced bouncy vibes on Mosca’s ‘Bax’, released on Numbers way back in 2011. Nine years later it’s still just as catchy and jolly as it was when it first dropped. Back then it was ubiquitous, like many other classic tracks of that ilk, it was played by everyone who was anyone, finding its way into sets from Seth Troxler to the likes of DJ EZ.

And that’s just a fraction of the music on this playlist. Hit the play button and time travel through the last 10 years of house music…