This 10 Best Worldwide Records of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide releases that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive vocabulary across the record's ten parts. His composition draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a ongoing, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and understated, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. It is well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of distortion and hiss to produce a novel, menacing groove. Sometimes ambient and uneasy, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral afterimage.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating fusion of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, 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 remains close, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They create sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, quirky interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece 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 counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
