The Ten Best Global Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international releases that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent percussion may not appear the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive vocabulary across the record's ten parts. The album references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a ongoing, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, singing tender melodies atop the string arrangements 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, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity provides the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to resonate. It is that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of sludge and noise to generate a novel, menacing groove. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 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 deliver an strikingly captivating blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music to date. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft jazz-pop 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-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that impart a new, quirky interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
