This 10 Greatest International Releases of This Past Year
Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that defied expectations. We explore ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming may not appear the most approachable musical proposition. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive dialect across the record's 10 movements. The album references Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, thrumming figure. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings 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 trembling, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and subtle, yet this simplicity creates the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to shine through. This is a record that justifies the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reinterpretations of archival audio. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and hiss to generate a fresh, sinister groove. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 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 deliver an unusually captivating fusion of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, 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 club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the gentle 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 energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, pulling the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a new, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating 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 dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
