Our 10 Best International Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. His composition channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a persistent, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, longing vibrato over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to shine through. It is well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for haunting reworkings of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of sludge and noise to generate a novel, foreboding rhythm. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly afterimage.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, 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 created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that lend a novel, quirky twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece 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 dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
