This Ten Greatest Worldwide Records of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive dialect throughout the record's ten parts. The work draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and introspective, delivering tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, longing vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and restrained, yet this minimalism creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to take center stage. It is truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in haunting reworkings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound even further, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of distortion and noise to produce a novel, menacing rhythm. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually compelling combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They develop smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that impart a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse 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 dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
