Our Ten Greatest International Records of 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring piece. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The album channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing refrain. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, singing 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 trembling, yearning vocal technique over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive compositions to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit specializes in eerie reimaginings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of distortion and hiss to produce a new, foreboding rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the celebratory party music of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably captivating combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a fresh, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born 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 Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
