Our Ten Greatest International Records of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global music that pushed boundaries. We explore ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent percussion might not seem the most approachable listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring work. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The album references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a ongoing, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, delivering tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, yearning vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's expressive compositions to shine through. The album proves to be well worth the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in eerie reworkings of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of murk and hiss to generate a new, menacing beat. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly engaging combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft jazz-pop 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-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the warm soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a new, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals 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. Ultimately, it is Pim