This Ten Most Outstanding Worldwide Records of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international sounds that pushed boundaries. We explore ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming might not seem the easiest listening experience. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language over the record's ten parts. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vibrato over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and understated, yet this simplicity offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to take center stage. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and noise to create a new, sinister beat. At turns ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually captivating combination of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium 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 features a driving disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her broadest music to date. Moving away from her background 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-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, pulling the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that impart a fresh, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
