This Ten Greatest International Records of 2025

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.

Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive dialect throughout the record's 10 movements. His composition references the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the repetition of a persistent, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.

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

Following an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and ruminative, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, yearning vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The album's sound is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the ideal environment for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to resonate. This is a record truly deserving of the wait.

8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas

Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reimaginings of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of murk and noise to produce a novel, sinister groove. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.

7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sheer intensity is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become oddly freeing.

Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly compelling fusion of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ 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 channels a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

Number Five: Enji – Resonance

Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music so far. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics 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. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's strong 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 ventures into lively new territory. They create sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a fresh, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Arranging 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 theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim