The Ten Top International Albums of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring work. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language over the record's ten sections. The work channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the repetition of a continual, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, yearning vibrato against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and restrained, yet this austerity offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive compositions to take center stage. This is a record well worth the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reimaginings of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of sludge and noise to create a new, menacing groove. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, spectral memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating blend of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a new, quirky interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the liturgical vocals 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 brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
