This 10 Greatest Worldwide Albums of This Past Year

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international sounds that expanded horizons. We explore ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.

Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming may not appear the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a strangely alluring work. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. His composition references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a continual, thrumming motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.

Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember

Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, delivering soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, yearning vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and subtle, yet this austerity offers the ideal canvas for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the long anticipation.

Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas

Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reworkings of archival audio. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of distortion and noise to produce a new, menacing beat. At turns atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal memory.

7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sheer intensity is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly liberating.

Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably captivating fusion of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

5. Enji – Sonor

Mongolian singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa

Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a novel, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim