The 10 Best International Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global releases that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming might not seem the easiest listening experience. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating work. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive vocabulary across the record's ten sections. The work draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a persistent, driving figure. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, delivering tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to resonate. This is a record well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in eerie reinterpretations of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of murk and hiss to create a new, foreboding beat. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the output 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 screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from driving techno rhythms 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. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually engaging combination of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped 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 finds lively new territory. They craft slinking, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, quirky interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
