This Ten Top International Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international releases that pushed boundaries. We explore ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive percussion might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language over the record's ten sections. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the repetition of a continual, thrumming refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and understated, yet this austerity provides the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to shine through. This is a record that justifies the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of distortion and static to generate a new, sinister rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably captivating blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel 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-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing 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 unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
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 merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that give a fresh, quirky twist to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
