🔗 Share this article This 10 Best International Records of This Past Year As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music. Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on 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 unexpectedly magnetic work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive dialect across the record's 10 movements. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world. Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget After an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the wait. 8. Debit – Desaceleradas From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of distortion and noise to produce a novel, sinister groove. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory. Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora! Sensory overload is the operative word for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating. 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 gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably captivating fusion of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music. Number Five: Enji – Resonance From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her singular voice. Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as MoÄŸollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style. 3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece MedellÃn Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including 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. Ultimately, it is Pim
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music. Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on 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 unexpectedly magnetic work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive dialect across the record's 10 movements. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world. Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget After an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the wait. 8. Debit – Desaceleradas From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of distortion and noise to produce a novel, sinister groove. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory. Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora! Sensory overload is the operative word for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating. 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 gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably captivating fusion of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music. Number Five: Enji – Resonance From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her singular voice. Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as MoÄŸollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style. 3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece MedellÃn Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including 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. Ultimately, it is Pim