Our Ten Finest International Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide releases that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive language across the record's ten sections. His composition references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a persistent, pulsing refrain. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and subtle, yet this austerity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, processing its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of sludge and hiss to generate a novel, menacing rhythm. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the celebratory party music of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually captivating fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium 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 disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle jazz-pop 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 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that impart a new, quirky interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member 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 counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
