Our Ten Finest Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide sounds that pushed boundaries. We explore ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion might not seem the easiest musical proposition. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive vocabulary across the record's ten sections. His composition references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a continual, pulsing refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, delivering soft melodies over 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 quivering, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and subtle, yet this minimalism provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to shine through. The album proves to be well worth the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, processing its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of sludge and noise to generate a fresh, sinister rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism 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 piles a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. 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 reissued treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling fusion of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that impart a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
