The 10 Top International Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide music that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming may not appear the most approachable listening experience. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring piece. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten sections. His composition draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the reiteration of a ongoing, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, singing tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and subtle, yet this minimalism offers the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to take center stage. It is truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of sludge and noise to produce a new, foreboding beat. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging fusion of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles 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 channels a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word 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 full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that give a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member 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 counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
