This Ten Most Outstanding Worldwide Releases of This Past Year

The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped 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 approachable musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive language over the record's ten parts. His composition channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the repetition of a persistent, thrumming motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.

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

Coming off an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, delivering tender 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 adopts a wavering, yearning vibrato over north African synth lines and skittering 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 well worth the wait.

8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down

From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reimaginings of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of murk and hiss to generate a new, foreboding groove. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly memory.

Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Maximalism is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely freeing.

6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably captivating fusion of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.

Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor

Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to deliver 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 gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa

Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that lend a fresh, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim