The Ten Top Global Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive dialect over the record's 10 movements. The work references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a ongoing, thrumming refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, singing soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vocal technique over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this austerity creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to take center stage. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, processing its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of distortion and hiss to create a novel, sinister groove. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly compelling combination of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving disco bass groove. It's a party blend created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music to date. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies 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 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a new, unconventional twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece 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 counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
