Our 10 Most Outstanding International Releases of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. We explore ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion may not appear the easiest musical proposition. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating piece. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's ten sections. The album references Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, pulsing refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and thoughtful, delivering soft 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 uses a quivering, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this minimalism offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for haunting reworkings of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of sludge and static to create a fresh, sinister groove. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer 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 deliver an strikingly compelling blend of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They develop smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a new, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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 syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
