The Ten Most Outstanding International Releases of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide releases that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming might not seem the easiest listening experience. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's ten sections. The album references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the reiteration of a continual, thrumming motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this minimalism creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit specializes in haunting reworkings of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of distortion and static to create a novel, sinister groove. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly memory.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly engaging combination of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft 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. Featuring a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, inviting the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that impart a new, unconventional interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the Gregorian chants 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 woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
