Our Ten Most Outstanding Global Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international releases that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional 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 cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive dialect over the record's 10 movements. His composition references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, driving refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and understated, yet this minimalism creates the perfect canvas for Hamdan's expressive compositions to take center stage. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for haunting reworkings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of murk and static to produce a new, menacing beat. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably compelling fusion of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, 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 club-ready hybrid created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, pulling the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia established 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 dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They develop smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that lend a novel, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
