The 10 Top International Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide sounds that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language across the record's ten sections. His composition channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and introspective, singing tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the ideal canvas for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to resonate. It is well worth the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reworkings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of murk and hiss to generate a novel, sinister beat. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly captivating combination of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music so far. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. However, on classic Turkish songs 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 impart a new, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
