Our 10 Top Global Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming might not seem the most approachable listening experience. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive vocabulary throughout the record's 10 movements. The work draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a ongoing, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vibrato against north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The production is sparse and understated, yet this minimalism creates the ideal setting for Hamdan's emotive compositions to take center stage. It is truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reworkings of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of murk and hiss to create a new, foreboding rhythm. Sometimes ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: 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 treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually engaging combination of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music so far. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge 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 theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
