This Ten Greatest International Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global releases that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent percussion might not seem the easiest musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive dialect throughout the record's ten sections. His composition references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, driving refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is minimal and subtle, yet this minimalism creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reworkings of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of sludge and noise to create a new, menacing rhythm. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely exhilarating.
Number Six: 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 masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly engaging fusion of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver 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 soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group merges the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
