Our Ten Top Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming may not appear the easiest musical proposition. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating piece. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language over the record's ten parts. The album draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, thrumming figure. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, singing tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to shine through. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of distortion and hiss to generate a novel, foreboding beat. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal echo.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably captivating combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic 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 channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a fresh, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim