Thank goodness for the spiraling sprawl of dance and electronic music, as hard to define as it is to keep up with. It remains a cultural inspiration, distraction and declaration — especially in 2016. Because this was the year mainstream music criticism seemed to reach some sort of consensus as to what constitutes a big, important moment, while electronic artists remained committed on working through each event in their own idiosyncratic ways. Here was a case of local artists in their own scenes answering the questions most pertinent to them, which quite often reflected the world at large.

This is one reason Recommended Dose tries to downplay the notion of "best of" and reinforce that of "our favorites." These records — made in the well-established electronic music capitals of Berlin, Sheffield and Detroit, and hot spots such as Vancouver, Atlanta and Cairo — express the breadth and depth of what electronic music has to offer. Thank you for listening, keep safe on the dance floor, and please let us know what we missed and should hear in the new year on Twitter at @Sami_Yenigun (Sami), @raspberryjones (Piotr) and @spotieotis (Otis).

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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