The Ten Greatest Global Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive language over the record's ten sections. The work channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, yearning vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and restrained, yet this austerity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of sludge and static to generate a fresh, foreboding rhythm. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the celebratory party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually engaging blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present 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 melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with drifting Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a new, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including 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 woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
