This Ten Finest International Records of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive vocabulary across the record's ten parts. The album references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a persistent, driving figure. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, singing soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vocal technique over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for eerie reimaginings of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of sludge and noise to produce a novel, menacing beat. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, spectral echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly engaging combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops 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 11 tracks veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration 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 full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, pulling the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that lend a novel, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
