The 10 Most Outstanding International Records of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global music that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive percussion may not appear the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive dialect throughout the record's 10 movements. The work channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the repetition of a continual, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, singing delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vibrato over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and restrained, yet this simplicity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reimaginings of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of distortion and hiss to create a fresh, sinister groove. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually engaging combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, quirky interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
