Our Ten Best Global Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide sounds that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on cyclical drumming might not seem the most approachable listening experience. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. His composition draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, everything tethered in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing refrain. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and ruminative, singing tender melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The production is lean and subtle, yet this simplicity provides the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to shine through. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit specializes in eerie reworkings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of murk and static to generate a new, sinister rhythm. Periodically atmospheric and unsettling, Debit morphs the exuberant party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral afterimage.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding 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 notably frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly liberating.
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 rediscovered gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating blend of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mimics the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving walking disco bassline. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word 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. Showcasing a live band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the distinctive buzz of the electrified saz with drifting keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that lend a novel, quirky interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating 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. It is Pim
