The Ten Most Outstanding International Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international music that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language over the record's ten sections. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing motif. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, singing tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and subtle, yet this austerity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive compositions to resonate. The album proves to be well worth the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit excels at eerie reworkings of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of sludge and hiss to produce a fresh, foreboding rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly afterimage.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably compelling blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional 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 up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range 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 energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a fresh, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim