Our Ten Best International Albums of This Past Year
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global sounds that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive dialect throughout the record's ten parts. The work channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the repetition of a persistent, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, singing delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and understated, yet this austerity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's expressive compositions to take center stage. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for haunting reworkings of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of sludge and static to produce a new, sinister groove. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating combination of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most diverse music to date. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a novel, off-kilter spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging 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 dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
