This Ten Most Outstanding Worldwide Records of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide music that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming may not appear the most approachable listening experience. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive dialect throughout the record's 10 movements. The work draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a continual, driving refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and introspective, singing soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this austerity provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to resonate. The album proves to be well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound down to a crawl, running its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through sheets of distortion and noise to produce a novel, menacing beat. Sometimes ambient and uneasy, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably compelling blend of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft fourth album, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy keyboard and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's powerful high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging 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 dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
