This 10 Top Global Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global sounds that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive language across the record's ten parts. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a ongoing, pulsing figure. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, luring the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and thoughtful, singing soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this austerity creates the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for eerie reinterpretations of archival audio. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of murk and hiss to create a novel, foreboding beat. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become oddly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly engaging fusion of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. 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, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies 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. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, inviting the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
