Our 10 Finest Worldwide Records of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international sounds that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive vocabulary across the record's ten sections. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, thrumming figure. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and subtle, yet this austerity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for haunting reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of sludge and noise to create a new, sinister rhythm. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly afterimage.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become strangely freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating blend of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of downtempo 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. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register 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 lively new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
