The Ten Most Outstanding Global Records of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive language over the record's ten parts. The work references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and introspective, delivering soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, yearning vocal technique against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to take center stage. It is truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of distortion and noise to create a fresh, foreboding rhythm. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly freeing.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably compelling blend of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating 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 takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the gentle Norah Jones-esque 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. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, inviting the listener into the warm soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together 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 liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
