This Ten Top Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive language throughout the record's ten parts. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the reiteration of a persistent, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, delivering tender 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 trembling, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and subtle, yet this minimalism provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. This is a record that justifies the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of murk and static to generate a fresh, foreboding rhythm. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a fresh, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist 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 sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
