Our Ten Greatest International Releases of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of international music that defied expectations. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language over the record's 10 movements. The work channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and introspective, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a quivering, yearning vibrato against north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this austerity provides the ideal environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to take center stage. This is a record well worth the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via sheets of murk and hiss to produce a fresh, sinister beat. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become oddly exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an strikingly engaging blend of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs veer 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 sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay close, drawing the listener into the warm acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the electrified saz with drifting keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They craft sinuous, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that lend a novel, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
