This Ten Best Worldwide Albums of This Past Year

The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global music that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.

10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating work. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. His composition channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.

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

Following an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and introspective, singing soft melodies over 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 vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and understated, yet this simplicity creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to shine through. The album proves to be well worth the long anticipation.

Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas

Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for haunting reimaginings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of sludge and noise to produce a novel, sinister rhythm. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly afterimage.

7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sensory overload is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.

6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly engaging combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.

5. Enji – Sonor

From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her background 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 spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.

Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim