This Ten Best International Records of This Past Year

Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.

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

The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive drumming may not appear the most approachable listening experience. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. The work draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, driving refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.

9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

After an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and understated, yet this simplicity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to shine through. This is a record that justifies the long anticipation.

8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of distortion and noise to produce a new, menacing groove. Periodically ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the celebratory party music of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal echo.

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

Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly freeing.

6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably compelling fusion of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor

From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate new release, 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 11 tracks travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa

Inspired by 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 fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from 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. Ultimately, it is Pim