The 10 Best Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global releases that expanded horizons. We explore ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming might not seem the easiest listening experience. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive dialect across the record's ten sections. The album references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a persistent, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, singing soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive compositions to take center stage. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
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 version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of murk and hiss to create a novel, sinister groove. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal echo.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become strangely exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly captivating combination of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns 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. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music so far. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, pulling the listener into the warm soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
