The Ten Finest International Records of 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international releases that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive vocabulary across the record's ten sections. His composition references Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a persistent, thrumming refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this austerity creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. This is a record well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of distortion and static to generate a novel, menacing groove. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become oddly exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer 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 offer an strikingly captivating blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, 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 pioneered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer 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 energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, inviting the listener into the warm soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group merges the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a fresh, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging 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 theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
