The Ten Best Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide releases that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion may not appear the most accessible listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive language throughout the record's ten parts. His composition references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming motif. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, longing vibrato against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and understated, yet this simplicity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to take center stage. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of murk and static to create a novel, foreboding rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, spectral afterimage.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics 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-inflected 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 manages to stay intimate, pulling the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They craft smooth, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
