Our 10 Best International Records of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of international sounds that pushed boundaries. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical percussion might not seem the most approachable listening experience. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. His composition channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the reiteration of a ongoing, driving refrain. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, singing tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vibrato over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and subtle, yet this austerity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reimaginings of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of distortion and static to generate a fresh, sinister beat. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly liberating.
6. 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 strikingly compelling blend of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium 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 walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, pulling the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece MedellĂn Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of AĂşn Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
