Our Ten Finest Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global releases that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive percussion might not seem the easiest listening experience. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring album. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The album references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy collection 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 soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vocal technique over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The production is sparse and restrained, yet this austerity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to shine through. It is well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of murk and static to generate a new, sinister rhythm. At turns ambient and discomfiting, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
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 stacks a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of 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, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably engaging fusion of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music to date. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning 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 standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with drifting Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a novel, unconventional spin 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 all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the Gregorian chants 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
