This Ten Best International Records of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent drumming might not seem the most approachable musical proposition. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language across the record's ten sections. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a ongoing, driving motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and introspective, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vocal technique over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The production is lean and subtle, yet this minimalism provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. It is that justifies the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reworkings of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of sludge and noise to create a new, sinister groove. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional 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 fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel 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 sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a novel, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge 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 theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
