This 10 Greatest Global Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international releases that expanded horizons. We explore ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive dialect across the record's 10 movements. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a continual, thrumming figure. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity provides the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. It is well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reworkings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of distortion and static to produce a new, foreboding rhythm. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably engaging fusion of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside 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 spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by 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 electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a fresh, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating 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 dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
