Our Ten Top Global Records 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

An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable listening experience. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive dialect across the record's 10 movements. His composition channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, thrumming refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.

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

Following an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, singing tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, longing vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this minimalism creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive compositions to resonate. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.

Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for eerie reworkings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of murk and hiss to generate a novel, foreboding beat. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.

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

Sensory overload is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.

Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly engaging fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

Number Five: Enji – Resonance

Mongolian singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration 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 ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, inviting the listener into the gentle acoustics of her singular voice.

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

Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that lend a fresh, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim