Our 10 Best Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical drumming may not appear the most accessible listening experience. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive dialect across the record's 10 movements. The album channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a ongoing, thrumming figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the ideal canvas for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to take center stage. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for haunting reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of distortion and hiss to create a fresh, sinister groove. Periodically atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal echo.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating fusion of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, drawing 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 Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that lend a fresh, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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. It is Pim
