Our Ten Best Global Records of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international releases that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. His composition channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a persistent, driving refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and subtle, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to take center stage. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reimaginings of archival audio. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of sludge and static to produce a novel, foreboding groove. Periodically atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Give in to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably engaging fusion of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Moving away from her background 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-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a fresh, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
