The Ten Top Global Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide 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
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming may not appear the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten sections. His composition references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and ruminative, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and restrained, yet this simplicity provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. It is that justifies the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in eerie reworkings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, processing its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of murk and hiss to create a fresh, sinister beat. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, 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 especially manic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become oddly exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably captivating fusion of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most diverse music to date. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range 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-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, pulling the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim