This Ten Top International Records of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global music that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming may not appear the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The album draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and subtle, yet this austerity offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to take center stage. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in haunting reimaginings of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of murk and noise to generate a new, menacing rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the operative word for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably captivating blend of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines 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 walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, inviting the listener into the gentle acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, quirky interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
