Our 10 Finest Worldwide Records of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international music that pushed boundaries. We explore 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 cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a strangely alluring album. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's ten parts. His composition channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a ongoing, thrumming figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, delivering delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this minimalism offers the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to resonate. This is a record that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and static to produce a new, sinister groove. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually engaging blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a fresh, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
