Our 10 Most Outstanding International Albums of This Past Year
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide releases that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming might not seem the easiest listening experience. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive dialect over the record's ten sections. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, singing soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is sparse and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of murk and noise to produce a fresh, foreboding beat. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving disco bass groove. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the gentle acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a novel, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
