The Ten Most Outstanding Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language over the record's ten sections. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a persistent, thrumming motif. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and subtle, yet this simplicity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to take center stage. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of sludge and noise to generate a fresh, menacing groove. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably compelling fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium 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 boasts a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music to date. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a fresh, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
