This Ten Finest Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide releases that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion may not appear the easiest listening experience. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive dialect over the record's 10 movements. His composition channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and introspective, delivering delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vocal technique against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to shine through. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of murk and noise to produce a novel, menacing beat. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly compelling fusion of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most wide-ranging 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 twanging 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 is still personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a novel, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
