Max Bienstock is a show organizer and student at Tufts University.

On this site you read a lot about music so local it was probably recorded in my basement in Somerville while I was sleeping and then sold from the stoop while I was brushing my teeth. Now I think the other side of the spectrum deserves some attention. Here’s my list of the best albums released in 2012 that are the least local in time or space (in no particular order).

1. Pictures of Sound: One Thousand Years of Educed Audio: 980-1980 (Dust-to-Digital)

2. Aimer et Perdre: To Love and to Lose Songs 1917-1934 (Tompkins Square)

3. Qat, Coffee & Qambus: Raw 45s From Yemen (Parlortone)

4. The African Guitar Box (Mississippi Records)

5. Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard: Hard Time, Good Time & End Time Music, 1923-1936 (Tompkins Square)

6. Time to Go—The Southern Psychedelic Moment: 1981-1986 (Flying Nun)

7. Ndigal by Karantamba (Teranga Beat)

8. Listen, Whitey! The Sounds of Black Power 1967-1974 (Light in the Attic)

9. Hikari To Nazukeyou by Fushitsusha (Heartfast)

10. The Lost Tapes by Can (Mute)