Our Ten Best International Releases of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide releases that pushed boundaries. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive percussion might not seem the easiest musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring work. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive vocabulary across the record's ten sections. His composition channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a contemplative collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and introspective, singing soft melodies atop 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 wavering, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and understated, yet this austerity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reimaginings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of distortion and noise to generate a fresh, foreboding groove. At turns atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the energy, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually compelling fusion of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion 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. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning 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 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the electrified saz with dreamy keyboard and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's commanding high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds vibrant new territory. They craft smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that lend a novel, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
