Our 10 Greatest Global Records of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide releases that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming might not seem the most approachable listening experience. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's ten parts. The album references Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing figure. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that established her as a fixture 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. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and understated, yet this minimalism offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reimaginings of historical sounds. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of distortion and noise to create a new, sinister beat. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually compelling blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the gentle 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 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, pulling the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They create sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that give a fresh, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
