Our 10 Greatest Worldwide Records of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international releases that defied expectations. We explore ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming may not appear the most approachable listening experience. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive dialect throughout the record's 10 movements. The album channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a ongoing, thrumming refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and ruminative, delivering soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato over electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and subtle, yet this minimalism creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in eerie reworkings of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of murk and noise to create a fresh, foreboding groove. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit morphs the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly compelling fusion of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving disco bass groove. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music to date. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, quirky twist to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
