The Ten Finest Worldwide Records of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion could sound like it isn't the most approachable musical proposition. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a intricate percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the repetition of a ongoing, thrumming refrain. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, singing tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, yearning vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to shine through. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reworkings of historical sounds. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of murk and static to create a new, menacing rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit morphs the celebratory party music 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 output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a cacophony of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably captivating blend of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody replicates the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered 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, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces 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 sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They craft sinuous, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that impart a new, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the liturgical vocals 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 brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
