Our 10 Best International Records of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that defied expectations. We explore ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming might not seem the easiest musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating piece. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. His composition draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the repetition of a continual, pulsing refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and introspective, delivering tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, longing vocal technique against electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and subtle, yet this austerity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit specializes in uncanny reinterpretations of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of sludge and static to create a new, menacing groove. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually engaging combination of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium 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 boasts a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a fresh, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings 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 explore everything from 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
