This 10 Top International Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international sounds that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating piece. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive vocabulary across the record's 10 movements. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful 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 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and understated, yet this minimalism offers the perfect setting for Hamdan's expressive compositions to take center stage. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of distortion and static to generate a fresh, menacing beat. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating fusion of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves 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 rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the gentle 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-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, inviting the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group blends the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that lend a novel, unconventional twist to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
