This 10 Best Global Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global music that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating piece. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The work draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the reiteration of a continual, pulsing motif. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this austerity provides the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to take center stage. It is that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of murk and noise to generate a fresh, menacing groove. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal afterimage.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates 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 forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly freeing.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling combination of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer 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-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, inviting the listener into the tender soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group merges the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
