This Ten Greatest Global Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global releases that pushed boundaries. We explore ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a strangely alluring work. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive vocabulary over the record's ten parts. The album channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the repetition of a ongoing, thrumming motif. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: 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 mournful album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, yearning vibrato over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this austerity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to take center stage. This is a record well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of distortion and hiss to generate a new, sinister rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism 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 piles a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, 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 chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually compelling combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo 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 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, pulling the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
