Our Ten Greatest Global Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide releases that pushed boundaries. We explore ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. His composition references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the repetition of a ongoing, thrumming refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and introspective, singing tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vocal technique over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and understated, yet this minimalism provides the ideal setting for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to take center stage. It is truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of archival audio. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of sludge and static to generate a fresh, menacing beat. At turns ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly freeing.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, 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 melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the Gregorian chants 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
