The 10 Greatest Global Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global music that pushed boundaries. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming may not appear the most accessible listening experience. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a strangely alluring album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive dialect over the record's ten sections. The work draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and introspective, singing soft 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 trembling, yearning vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and understated, yet this simplicity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. This is a record well worth the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit excels at haunting reimaginings of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of distortion and hiss to generate a fresh, menacing groove. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become oddly exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly captivating combination of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Departing 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 trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected 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 remains personal, drawing the listener into the tender acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They craft smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that lend a fresh, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
