This Ten Greatest Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a ongoing, driving motif. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and introspective, singing delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, yearning vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this austerity provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to shine through. It is that justifies the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for eerie reinterpretations of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of distortion and hiss to generate a fresh, menacing beat. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably compelling blend of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that give a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
