Our Ten Greatest Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global releases that defied expectations. We explore ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming may not appear the most approachable listening experience. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating piece. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive vocabulary across the record's ten sections. The album draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the repetition of a continual, thrumming figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, singing soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, yearning vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and subtle, yet this austerity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of archival audio. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of sludge and static to produce a fresh, foreboding groove. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, adding 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 particularly frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music to date. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a fresh, off-kilter spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. 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 syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
