Our Ten Most Outstanding Global Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical percussion may not appear the most approachable listening experience. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive vocabulary throughout the record's 10 movements. The work channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a persistent, pulsing motif. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, longing vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and subtle, yet this minimalism offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at uncanny reinterpretations of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of distortion and static to generate a novel, menacing groove. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably compelling fusion of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving walking disco bassline. It's a party blend delivered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word 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. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They craft smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a new, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning 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 theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
