Our Ten Greatest Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international releases that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming might not seem the most accessible listening experience. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring album. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive dialect throughout the record's ten parts. The album draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a ongoing, thrumming refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this simplicity provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in eerie reimaginings of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of sludge and hiss to produce a novel, foreboding beat. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly memory.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably captivating combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her training 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 energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
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 distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a novel, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member 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 dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
