This Ten Finest International Records of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international sounds that expanded horizons. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a dense percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The album draws from Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the reiteration of a continual, thrumming figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of devotional 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, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and introspective, delivering tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vibrato against north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this minimalism creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive compositions to take center stage. This is a record truly deserving of the long anticipation.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit specializes in eerie reinterpretations of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of sludge and noise to generate a new, menacing beat. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the key term for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, throwing in everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the assault and Vieira's unapologetic productions become strangely exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually engaging combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features 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
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, 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 pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek merges the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that lend a novel, quirky interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
