The Ten Best International Records of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion may not appear the easiest listening experience. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring piece. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive language throughout the record's 10 movements. His composition channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the reiteration of a persistent, driving refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced style that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, delivering soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vibrato over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this austerity provides the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to shine through. It is that justifies the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit specializes in haunting reworkings of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of murk and noise to create a fresh, menacing rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit morphs the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, spectral memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly liberating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
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 engaging combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music to date. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodics 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. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They craft smooth, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that give a fresh, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
