The Ten Top Global Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive vocabulary across the record's ten parts. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, yearning vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and understated, yet this austerity provides the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reimaginings of archival audio. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of sludge and static to produce a new, sinister groove. At turns atmospheric and uneasy, Debit morphs the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually compelling combination of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, 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 remains intimate, pulling the listener into the tender soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, off-kilter spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member 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 dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
