Our Ten Top Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. We explore ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a persistent, driving refrain. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling 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 vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and introspective, delivering tender 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 adopts a trembling, longing vocal technique over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and understated, yet this austerity provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, processing its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of sludge and static to create a new, sinister groove. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit morphs the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly engaging combination of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles 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 over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered 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 drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a fresh, off-kilter spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim