This Ten Most Outstanding Global Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical drumming may not appear the easiest listening experience. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten sections. The work draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the reiteration of a continual, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, delivering tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, yearning vocal technique over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this simplicity offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive compositions to shine through. It is truly deserving of the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of sludge and static to generate a novel, menacing groove. Periodically atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually engaging blend of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse 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 melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a fresh, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the liturgical vocals 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. It is Pim
