Our Ten Top Worldwide Releases of This Past Year

Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.

10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already

The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming may not appear the easiest listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive language across the record's ten parts. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a ongoing, thrumming figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.

9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember

Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and introspective, singing tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the wait.

8. Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico producer Debit specializes in eerie reimaginings of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of distortion and hiss to generate a new, foreboding rhythm. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly afterimage.

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

Sensory overload is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, 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 overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.

Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly compelling combination of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.

Number Five: Enji – Resonance

Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the gentle jazz-pop 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. Utilizing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.

Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa

Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a novel, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim