The 10 Greatest International Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. His composition references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, driving figure. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and restrained, yet this simplicity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to resonate. It is well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reimaginings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of sludge and hiss to create a new, menacing beat. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit morphs the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, spectral memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating fusion of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most diverse music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that impart a novel, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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 syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
