🔗 Share this article Our 10 Top Worldwide Records of This Past Year Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music. Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive percussion might not seem the most approachable listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive language across the record's ten sections. His composition references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm. Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and thoughtful, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and subtle, yet this minimalism provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to take center stage. This is a record that justifies the wait. 8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reworkings of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of sludge and hiss to produce a new, sinister rhythm. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, spectral afterimage. 7. DJ K – Liberator Radio! Maximalism is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely freeing. Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly compelling combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ 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 up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion. 5. Enji – Resonance From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice. Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound. Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music. Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive percussion might not seem the most approachable listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive language across the record's ten sections. His composition references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm. Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and thoughtful, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and subtle, yet this minimalism provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to take center stage. This is a record that justifies the wait. 8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reworkings of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of sludge and hiss to produce a new, sinister rhythm. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, spectral afterimage. 7. DJ K – Liberator Radio! Maximalism is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely freeing. Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly compelling combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ 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 up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion. 5. Enji – Resonance From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice. Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound. Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim