This 10 Greatest Worldwide Records of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide releases that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion may not appear the easiest listening experience. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language over the record's 10 movements. The album references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the repetition of a continual, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, luring the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic 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 bowing strings 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 trembling, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity provides the ideal setting for Hamdan's emotive compositions to take center stage. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at uncanny reworkings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of sludge and hiss to create a fresh, sinister rhythm. At turns atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling combination of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid created more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that give a new, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
