The 10 Greatest Worldwide 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 defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring piece. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive language over the record's 10 movements. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the repetition of a persistent, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, delivering delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to take center stage. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for haunting reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of distortion and static to generate a fresh, foreboding groove. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging fusion of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music to date. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle 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 lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that give a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
