The 10 Most Outstanding Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global releases that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive dialect throughout the record's ten sections. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming motif. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, singing delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and understated, yet this minimalism offers the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to take center stage. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reworkings of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of distortion and noise to create a novel, sinister groove. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, spectral echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become oddly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly captivating fusion of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies 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 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established 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 electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a new, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
