The 10 Best International Records of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide releases that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language across the record's ten parts. The album draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, driving refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, yearning vocal technique against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the ideal setting for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in haunting reworkings of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of murk and static to generate a novel, foreboding rhythm. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, spectral echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian 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 genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They develop slinking, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that give a new, off-kilter spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
