Our Ten Greatest International Records of This Past Year

Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.

10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already

The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive vocabulary throughout the record's 10 movements. His composition references Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.

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

Following an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and subtle, yet this austerity offers the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.

Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas

Mexican producer Debit specializes in uncanny reworkings of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of distortion and static to generate a new, foreboding rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral memory.

Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!

Maximalism is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.

6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably captivating fusion of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving disco bass groove. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.

Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance

From Mongolia singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create sinuous, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that impart a fresh, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical 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