The 10 Top Worldwide Records of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of international releases that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable listening experience. Yet, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating work. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive language throughout the record's ten parts. The work channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop 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 trembling, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the ideal setting for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in uncanny reimaginings of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of sludge and static to generate a fresh, foreboding groove. Periodically ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly echo.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding 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 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly captivating blend of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a party blend created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with drifting Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that lend a novel, quirky twist to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
