This Ten Most Outstanding Global Releases of This Past Year

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that pushed boundaries. We explore ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.

10. The Percussionist 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 most accessible musical proposition. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. His composition channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing refrain. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive universe.

Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

Following an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, yearning vibrato against north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. This is a record well worth the wait.

Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas

Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of historical sounds. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of distortion and noise to generate a novel, sinister groove. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, spectral afterimage.

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

Sheer intensity is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.

Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.

5. Enji – Resonance

From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, drawing the listener into the warm soundscape of her singular voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow

Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born 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 syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim