Our 10 Most Outstanding International Records of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive language across the record's ten sections. The album draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming refrain. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and introspective, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and restrained, yet this austerity creates the ideal setting for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. This is a record well worth the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of historical sounds. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and noise to generate a fresh, foreboding groove. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up 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 hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly engaging combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her background 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-language narration 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. Utilizing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that give a new, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece 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 theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim