This 10 Top Global Albums of This Past Year

The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international sounds that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.

10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. The work draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, thrumming motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.

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

After an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and introspective, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, yearning vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and restrained, yet this austerity creates the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be well worth the long anticipation.

Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down

Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reworkings of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of distortion and static to generate a fresh, sinister rhythm. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage.

7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sheer intensity is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly freeing.

Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ 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 features a driving disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.

5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance

From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa

Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that give a fresh, unconventional interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.

3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim