The 10 Most Outstanding Global Albums of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring work. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The album channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, driving refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, luring the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and understated, yet this minimalism creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to take center stage. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reworkings of archival audio. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of distortion and hiss to produce a new, menacing rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding 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 deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic 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 boasts a driving disco bass groove. It's a party blend created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most diverse music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They craft sinuous, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that lend a fresh, quirky twist to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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 reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
