The 10 Most Outstanding International Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international releases that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive dialect throughout the record's ten parts. The work draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, everything tethered in the repetition of a continual, driving figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged aesthetic that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, delivering soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vocal technique against north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and subtle, yet this austerity provides the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive compositions to shine through. This is a record that justifies the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit excels at eerie reimaginings of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of sludge and noise to create a novel, sinister beat. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender 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 music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly captivating blend of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word 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. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, drawing the listener into the warm soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a fresh, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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 rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
