Our 10 Greatest International Records of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide releases that pushed boundaries. We explore ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring piece. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive dialect over the record's ten sections. The album draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a persistent, driving motif. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and introspective, singing tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and restrained, yet this simplicity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and static to generate a new, menacing beat. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly memory.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the operative word for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating combination of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium 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 features a driving walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies 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 ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 1960s legacy 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 drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's commanding high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that impart a novel, quirky twist to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
