This 10 Finest International Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive drumming might not seem the most accessible listening experience. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive vocabulary over the record's ten sections. His composition references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing motif. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and introspective, delivering tender 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 over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and understated, yet this minimalism creates the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to take center stage. This is a record that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reimaginings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and hiss to produce a fresh, menacing beat. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit morphs the celebratory party music of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal echo.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics 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 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a new, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
