Our Ten Finest International Releases of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of global releases that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion may not appear the easiest musical proposition. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. His composition references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a continual, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, luring the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, singing delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vocal technique over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and subtle, yet this minimalism offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for eerie reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of distortion and static to create a fresh, menacing beat. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually engaging blend of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid pioneered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, builds upon 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 veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the tender acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that impart a new, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín 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 interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
