This 10 Best International Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive language over the record's ten sections. His composition references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, driving refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, singing delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vocal technique against north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at uncanny reimaginings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and noise to create a fresh, sinister beat. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral afterimage.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually captivating fusion of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced 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 gentle new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that give a fresh, off-kilter spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim