The Ten Top International Records of the Year 2025

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global releases that defied expectations. We explore ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.

Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already

A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion might not seem the most approachable listening experience. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring piece. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive language throughout the record's 10 movements. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a continual, pulsing refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive universe.

Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

Following an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, singing delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The production is lean and subtle, yet this austerity offers the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to shine through. It is that justifies the long anticipation.

Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down

From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of distortion and hiss to create a fresh, menacing rhythm. At turns ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal echo.

7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sheer intensity is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely freeing.

Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an unusually compelling fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

Number Five: Enji – Resonance

Mongolian singer Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most diverse music so far. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.

Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with drifting Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop smooth, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that impart a fresh, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including 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 woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim