This 10 Most Outstanding Worldwide Records of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global sounds that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion might not seem the most approachable listening experience. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. His composition references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, 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 wavering, yearning vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this austerity offers the perfect setting for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to take center stage. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reimaginings of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of sludge and static to generate a novel, foreboding rhythm. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably engaging fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They craft smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a novel, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating 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 dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
