Our 10 Greatest International Records of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global sounds that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's ten parts. His composition channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a continual, thrumming refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, luring the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and introspective, singing tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, longing vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. It is well worth the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reworkings of archival audio. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of murk and static to generate a novel, foreboding groove. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly engaging fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
