Our 10 Most Outstanding Worldwide Albums of This Past Year

The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international sounds that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.

Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating piece. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language over the record's ten sections. The work draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.

9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember

Following an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this minimalism provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.

Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for eerie reworkings of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of murk and hiss to create a novel, sinister rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly memory.

7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!

Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly exhilarating.

6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly engaging fusion of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.

Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance

From Mongolia singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her singular voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa

Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the metallic twang of the electrified saz with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They craft smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a novel, unconventional twist to the Turkish psych sound.

3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim