Our Ten Best Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide releases that expanded horizons. We explore ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion might not seem the most accessible listening experience. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive language across the record's ten parts. His composition references Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and subtle, yet this minimalism creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive compositions to resonate. It is well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in eerie reinterpretations of archival audio. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of sludge and hiss to generate a fresh, sinister rhythm. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating blend of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, inviting the listener into the warm soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy 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 aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
