The 10 Finest Worldwide Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international sounds that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion may not appear the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. The album channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the repetition of a persistent, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive compositions to shine through. The album proves to be well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of distortion and hiss to produce a fresh, foreboding groove. At turns ambient and discomfiting, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly compelling blend of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most diverse music yet. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs 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 energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped 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 reaches dynamic new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a new, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece 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 dramatic 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
