Our Ten Top Global Records of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming may not appear the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive dialect across the record's ten sections. The work references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a continual, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and subtle, yet this austerity offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to take center stage. It is truly deserving of the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reworkings of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of distortion and hiss to generate a novel, foreboding groove. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably compelling fusion of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving walking disco bassline. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs 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 energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They develop smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, off-kilter spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
