The Ten Most Outstanding Worldwide Records of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. The album references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a persistent, thrumming refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, yearning vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and understated, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of distortion and hiss to produce a new, sinister rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly engaging blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies 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-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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 reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
