Our 10 Most Outstanding Worldwide Albums of This Past Year

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international sounds that defied expectations. We explore ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.

10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already

A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language across the record's 10 movements. The album channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a persistent, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive universe.

9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

Following an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vocal technique over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and understated, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.

8. Debit – Desaceleradas

Mexican producer Debit has a knack for eerie reinterpretations of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of sludge and static to generate a fresh, menacing rhythm. Periodically ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.

7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become strangely 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 reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly compelling blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance

Mongolian singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music to date. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the warm soundscape of her distinctive voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa

Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia 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 amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They craft smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, quirky interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim