Our Ten Finest Worldwide Records of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide music that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest musical proposition. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Directing an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive language over the record's 10 movements. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, thrumming refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and understated, yet this simplicity creates the ideal setting for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. This is a record well worth the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for haunting reinterpretations of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of sludge and static to generate a new, foreboding groove. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually compelling combination of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes 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. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the gentle 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 energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that give a novel, off-kilter twist to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. 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 counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
