Our 10 Best Global Records of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide releases 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
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive language throughout the record's 10 movements. The album draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a continual, pulsing motif. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, longing vibrato over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this austerity creates the ideal setting for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to take center stage. It is that justifies the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for eerie reinterpretations of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of sludge and noise to produce a new, menacing groove. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, spectral memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become strangely exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually captivating blend of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group blends the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a new, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
