Our 10 Best Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming may not appear the easiest musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive vocabulary throughout the record's 10 movements. The work channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and introspective, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vibrato against north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to resonate. This is a record well worth the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reimaginings of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of sludge and hiss to create a novel, menacing groove. At turns atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the key term for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, throwing in 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 manic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become oddly freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually compelling combination of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the soft jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration 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 live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, inviting the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a novel, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece 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 dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
