The Ten Top Global Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide sounds that expanded horizons. We explore ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language throughout the record's 10 movements. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a ongoing, thrumming figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, delivering tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, longing vocal technique against north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit excels at eerie reworkings of archival audio. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of murk and noise to create a novel, foreboding beat. Sometimes ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.
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 treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly compelling combination of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning 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 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They craft slinking, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning 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 theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
