This 10 Top Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a strangely alluring piece. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's ten sections. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a ongoing, driving refrain. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, delivering tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this austerity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reimaginings of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of sludge and hiss to produce a new, menacing groove. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating fusion of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the traditional 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 channels a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges 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 shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that impart a fresh, off-kilter spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member 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 dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
