This 10 Best International Records of This Past Year

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international releases that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.

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

An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive language over the record's ten sections. His composition draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a continual, pulsing refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.

9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember

Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and understated, yet this minimalism creates the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.

Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down

Mexican producer Debit specializes in haunting reimaginings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of murk and static to create a new, sinister beat. Periodically ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral echo.

Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA 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 enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly liberating.

6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating fusion of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid created more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.

Number Five: Enji – Sonor

Mongolian singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, develops 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 eleven songs range from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.

Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow

Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim