This 10 Best Global Records of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global music that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion may not appear the most approachable musical proposition. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive dialect over the record's ten sections. The work references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the reiteration of a persistent, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for eerie reworkings of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of sludge and static to produce a fresh, foreboding groove. Periodically atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral afterimage.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, throwing in 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 deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually engaging combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, 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 created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – 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 electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, quirky twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece 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 brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
