Our 10 Top Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide music that pushed boundaries. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming may not appear the most accessible musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating piece. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive dialect over the record's ten sections. The work draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a ongoing, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and introspective, delivering tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and subtle, yet this minimalism offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to take center stage. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reimaginings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of murk and static to create a new, menacing groove. Periodically ambient and unsettling, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly captivating fusion of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music to date. Departing from her training 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 trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, pulling the listener into the warm soundscape 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, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a new, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
