This Ten Top Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating album. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive vocabulary over the record's ten sections. His composition references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the reiteration of a continual, thrumming figure. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, delivering soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, yearning vibrato against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and subtle, yet this austerity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for eerie reimaginings of historical sounds. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of sludge and static to produce a fresh, foreboding groove. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, spectral afterimage.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly compelling fusion of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic 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 fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, pulling the listener into the warm soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a fresh, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging 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 theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
