This 10 Most Outstanding International Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide sounds that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive language across the record's 10 movements. His composition channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a continual, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and introspective, delivering soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to shine through. This is a record that justifies the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of sludge and noise to create a novel, foreboding groove. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, 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 punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly engaging fusion of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart 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 orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member 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 counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
