The 10 Most Outstanding Global Records of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide sounds that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown 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 cyclical drumming may not appear the easiest musical proposition. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring work. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive dialect over the record's 10 movements. The work references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming figure. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and introspective, singing delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this austerity offers the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to take center stage. It is truly deserving of the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of distortion and static to generate a novel, sinister groove. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, spectral memory.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably captivating fusion of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the gentle 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 energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, pulling the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped 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 finds lively new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a fresh, quirky interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together 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 a vast range including 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 woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
