This Ten Best Worldwide Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international releases that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language throughout the record's ten parts. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, driving motif. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vocal technique against north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the perfect setting for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of murk and static to produce a fresh, sinister beat. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably engaging combination of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a novel, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
