Our Ten Best International Records of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the recurrence of a continual, driving motif. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a mournful set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and ruminative, delivering tender melodies atop 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 uses a quivering, yearning vibrato over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to resonate. It is well worth the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reimaginings of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound even further, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of sludge and noise to generate a new, sinister beat. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually captivating blend of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft jazz-pop melodies 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-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, off-kilter spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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 brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
