Our Ten Greatest Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. The album channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is lean and subtle, yet this minimalism provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for haunting reimaginings of historical sounds. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and hiss to create a new, menacing groove. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the key term 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, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly captivating blend of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that impart a new, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim