The 10 Greatest Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming may not appear the most accessible musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring piece. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive dialect throughout the record's ten parts. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, driving refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, singing soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, longing vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and subtle, yet this minimalism creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit excels at eerie reimaginings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of distortion and static to produce a new, sinister groove. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, adding everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly liberating.
Number Six: The Singer 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. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably compelling combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike 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, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft 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 energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, inviting the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register 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 vibrant new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, quirky interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary 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 theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
