The Ten Greatest International Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international releases that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating work. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language across the record's 10 movements. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a continual, driving motif. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and introspective, singing soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and subtle, yet this minimalism offers the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive compositions to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reimaginings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of murk and noise to generate a new, menacing groove. Sometimes ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly engaging blend of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore 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 global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs 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 sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
