Our 10 Finest International Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that defied expectations. We explore ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable listening experience. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The work draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, driving motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and subtle, yet this austerity creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. This is a record well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit specializes in haunting reworkings of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of distortion and hiss to create a novel, foreboding rhythm. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit morphs the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become strangely exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably compelling combination of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration 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 typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the tender soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group blends the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They craft slinking, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
