This Ten Top Global Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global sounds that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. The work references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a ongoing, thrumming figure. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, yearning vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and subtle, yet this minimalism provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to shine through. It is that justifies the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reworkings of historical sounds. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of sludge and hiss to generate a fresh, foreboding beat. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly compelling blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the gentle 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 lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, inviting the listener into the warm soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that give a fresh, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
