Our Ten Finest Worldwide Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international sounds that pushed boundaries. We explore ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical percussion might not seem the easiest musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's ten parts. The work draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the repetition of a persistent, pulsing refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, yearning vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to take center stage. This is a record well worth the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reimaginings of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of sludge and static to generate a fresh, foreboding rhythm. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably engaging blend of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the traditional 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 features a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that lend a novel, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. 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 theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
