🔗 Share this article This 10 Greatest International Albums of This Past Year Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music. 10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive dialect throughout the record's 10 movements. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, thrumming motif. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe. Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait. Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of distortion and noise to produce a new, menacing rhythm. Sometimes ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage. Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio! Sensory overload is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly liberating. Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly engaging fusion of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music. Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor Mongolian singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, drawing the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice. 4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa Channeling the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a fresh, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style. 3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants 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. Yet, it is Pim
Looking back on the musical landscape of global music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music. 10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive dialect throughout the record's 10 movements. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, thrumming motif. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe. Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait. Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of distortion and noise to produce a new, menacing rhythm. Sometimes ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal afterimage. Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio! Sensory overload is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly liberating. Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly engaging fusion of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music. Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor Mongolian singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, drawing the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice. 4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa Channeling the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a fresh, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style. 3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants 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. Yet, it is Pim