Our 10 Finest International Releases of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international releases that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming might not seem the most accessible listening experience. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating work. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive dialect throughout the record's ten sections. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, thrumming figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive world.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged aesthetic that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and introspective, singing tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. This is a record well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of distortion and static to produce a new, menacing beat. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal echo.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually engaging combination of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range 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 live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, unconventional twist to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging 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 dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
