The 10 Most Outstanding Global Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide music that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive percussion might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive language over the record's 10 movements. The work channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a persistent, driving refrain. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this austerity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for eerie reimaginings of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of sludge and noise to generate a fresh, sinister rhythm. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, adding 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 manic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly compelling blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range 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 sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group merges the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They craft sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a new, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
