This 10 Best Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global releases that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive percussion might not seem the most approachable listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language across the record's 10 movements. The album draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a continual, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vocal technique against north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and restrained, yet this austerity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to shine through. It is truly deserving of the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for eerie reinterpretations of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of sludge and static to create a fresh, sinister rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, spectral echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly liberating.
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 newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably captivating blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that give a fresh, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
