This Ten Most Outstanding International Records of 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide releases that expanded horizons. We explore ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive dialect across the record's ten parts. The work references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a ongoing, pulsing refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, delivering soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is minimal and restrained, yet this minimalism provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in eerie reworkings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of sludge and static to produce a fresh, sinister rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the key term for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly compelling blend of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft new release, Sonor, builds upon 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 veer from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a new, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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 syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
