The Ten Most Outstanding International Albums of This Past Year

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

Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already

A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's ten parts. The album channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, thrumming motif. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.

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

Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and introspective, delivering tender melodies atop the string arrangements 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 trembling, yearning vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. It is well worth the long anticipation.

8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in eerie reinterpretations of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of murk and static to create a novel, menacing groove. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the celebratory party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.

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

Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly 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 unexpectedly liberating.

Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually captivating fusion of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid created more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.

5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor

Mongolian singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, inviting the listener into the warm soundscape of her unique voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a fresh, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound.

3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim