The Ten Finest International Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide releases that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language across the record's ten parts. The album channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the reiteration of a persistent, thrumming figure. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to resonate. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reworkings of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of distortion and noise to generate a novel, foreboding groove. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, adding 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. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably captivating blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel 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-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim