The 10 Finest Global Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive dialect across the record's ten sections. The album channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the repetition of a persistent, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing soft 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 quivering, longing vocal technique over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and understated, yet this simplicity provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for eerie reimaginings of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of murk and noise to generate a novel, menacing groove. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably engaging blend of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional 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 channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that give a fresh, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
