Our Ten Greatest Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating work. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The work channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, driving refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to resonate. It is well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in eerie reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of murk and static to produce a new, sinister beat. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating combination of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration 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. Featuring a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a fresh, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim