Our 10 Best International Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide releases that expanded horizons. We explore ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive percussion might not seem the most accessible listening experience. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language across the record's ten parts. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, thrumming refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and restrained, yet this austerity creates the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to take center stage. It is that justifies the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit excels at uncanny reworkings of historical sounds. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of distortion and static to generate a novel, foreboding beat. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known 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 enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly captivating blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies 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 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, pulling the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with drifting Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that impart a fresh, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. 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 rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
