The 10 Finest International Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global sounds that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive dialect across the record's 10 movements. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a ongoing, driving figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vocal technique against north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and restrained, yet this austerity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to resonate. It is truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in eerie reimaginings of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of murk and noise to generate a fresh, sinister groove. Sometimes ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
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 rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably compelling fusion of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most diverse music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble 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 distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements 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 journey through 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. It is Pim
