Our Ten Finest Global Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion might not seem the most accessible listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive vocabulary throughout the record's 10 movements. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a continual, thrumming figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies atop 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 quivering, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is lean and subtle, yet this austerity provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to shine through. It is well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in eerie reimaginings of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of sludge and noise to create a new, sinister rhythm. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, spectral echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually engaging fusion of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They create sinuous, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a new, quirky interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
