Our Ten Greatest International Records of 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide releases that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The work draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the reiteration of a persistent, pulsing motif. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and introspective, singing 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 quivering, longing vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and understated, yet this simplicity offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. It is that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reworkings of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of murk and static to create a novel, sinister beat. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, throwing in 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 especially frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly engaging combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft 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-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, drawing the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the electric jangle of the electrified saz with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They develop smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a novel, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece MedellĂn Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of AĂşn Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
