Our Ten Finest Global Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide releases that defied expectations. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion might not seem the easiest musical proposition. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive language over the record's 10 movements. The album channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a ongoing, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and introspective, delivering tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vibrato over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to shine through. This is a record that justifies the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of murk and hiss to create a fresh, foreboding beat. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines parallels the classic 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 over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft 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 energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, inviting the listener into the warm soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create sinuous, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece 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 theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
