The Ten Top Worldwide Albums of This Past Year

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that expanded horizons. We explore ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.

10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already

The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive language across the record's ten sections. The work references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.

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

Coming off an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and subtle, yet this austerity creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the wait.

Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for eerie reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of sludge and noise to produce a fresh, sinister rhythm. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly memory.

7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Maximalism is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely freeing.

Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly captivating blend of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.

Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance

Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music to date. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa

Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim