This Ten Best Global Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international releases that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable listening experience. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. The album references Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing motif. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, delivering delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and understated, yet this austerity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to shine through. The album proves to be well worth the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of murk and hiss to create a novel, sinister groove. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly captivating blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the traditional 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 boasts a fast-paced 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
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that impart a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging 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 dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
