This Ten Greatest Global Records 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 characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, driving motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, longing vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this minimalism creates the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to take center stage. This is a record that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reworkings of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of sludge and static to generate a new, foreboding beat. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely freeing.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly engaging combination of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, inviting the listener into the tender soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a novel, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from 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 brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
