The 10 Greatest Global Records of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating work. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive dialect across the record's ten sections. The album references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, thrumming motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for eerie reworkings of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and noise to create a novel, sinister rhythm. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually compelling fusion of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
