The Ten Best International Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide music that pushed boundaries. We explore ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming might not seem the easiest listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive vocabulary across the record's ten parts. His composition references Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming motif. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vocal technique over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean 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 wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reinterpretations of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of distortion and noise to generate a fresh, sinister beat. At turns atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly freeing.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging combination of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the gentle 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-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on 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 electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a novel, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
