The Ten Greatest Worldwide Records of This Past Year

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.

Number Ten: 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 unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The work references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a continual, pulsing motif. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.

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

After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and introspective, singing tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, yearning vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.

8. Debit – Slowed Down

Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for haunting reimaginings of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and hiss to produce a fresh, menacing rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.

Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Maximalism is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.

6. 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 rediscovered treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly compelling blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.

Number Five: Enji – Sonor

Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music to date. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs 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 sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.

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

Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a novel, unconventional twist to the Turkish psych sound.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including 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 brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim