Our 10 Top Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating piece. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive vocabulary across the record's 10 movements. The album references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a persistent, thrumming refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vocal technique against north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and subtle, yet this austerity provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to take center stage. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reworkings of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and static to create a fresh, foreboding beat. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly compelling combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging 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 remains personal, pulling the listener into the tender soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They develop smooth, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, unconventional twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member 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 dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
