This Ten Top Global Records of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide releases that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive dialect over the record's 10 movements. The album channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and introspective, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this austerity offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to shine through. The album proves to be well worth the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for eerie reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of sludge and noise to produce a fresh, sinister beat. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly liberating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating combination of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium 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 fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a novel, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
