Our Ten Finest Worldwide Albums of 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international sounds that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist 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, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive dialect throughout the record's ten sections. The work references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the reiteration of a continual, pulsing refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged aesthetic 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 beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, longing vibrato over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to resonate. This is a record well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, processing its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and noise to generate a fresh, foreboding rhythm. Sometimes ambient and uneasy, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal echo.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually compelling fusion of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines parallels the classic 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 features a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft 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. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a fresh, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
