Our 10 Top International Records of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming might not seem the most approachable listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The album draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, delivering delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this simplicity creates the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of sludge and hiss to generate a new, foreboding rhythm. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the key term for the records 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 over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become oddly exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging fusion of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer 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 gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration 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 remains close, inviting the listener into the warm soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a fresh, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
