Our 10 Most Outstanding Global Albums of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global sounds that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming may not appear the easiest listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive language over the record's 10 movements. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, delivering tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and subtle, yet this austerity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive compositions to take center stage. This is a record well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in uncanny reimaginings of archival audio. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of sludge and hiss to produce a novel, sinister beat. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably captivating fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, inviting the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They craft smooth, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that give a novel, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
