This 10 Top Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that defied expectations. We explore ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The album channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a persistent, driving motif. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering tender 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, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this austerity provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's expressive compositions to shine through. It is truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reimaginings of archival audio. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of sludge and static to produce a fresh, menacing groove. At turns atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of 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 energy, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably compelling combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music to date. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live 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 distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that impart a new, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece 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 counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
