This Ten Finest Global Records of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide music that expanded horizons. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive percussion might not seem the most approachable listening experience. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. The album channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a continual, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, delivering soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reworkings of archival audio. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of murk and hiss to create a fresh, foreboding rhythm. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the exuberant party music of cumbia into a persistent, spectral echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the output of Brazilian 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 screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually captivating blend of the synthetic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, drawing the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek merges the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that lend a fresh, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings converge 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 dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
