Our Ten Finest Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global music that expanded horizons. We explore ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming might not seem the most approachable listening experience. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The album references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and ruminative, delivering tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vocal technique against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and restrained, yet this minimalism creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. This is a record well worth the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound even further, processing its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and static to generate a fresh, foreboding rhythm. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal echo.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the key term for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, adding 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 notably hyperactive and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music 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 blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning 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 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a novel, unconventional twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the liturgical vocals 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
