Our 10 Greatest Global Releases of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring work. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive vocabulary over the record's ten parts. The work channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, longing vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and understated, yet this austerity provides the ideal setting for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for haunting reimaginings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of distortion and hiss to create a new, menacing rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, adding 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 hyperactive and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling combination of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion created over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the gentle 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 energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They develop smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a new, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating 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 syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
