This 10 Finest Global Records of 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide sounds that pushed boundaries. We explore ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion might not seem the most approachable listening experience. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring album. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive language throughout the record's ten parts. His composition draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a persistent, thrumming motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and ruminative, singing soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this minimalism offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be well worth the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reworkings of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected take of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via sheets of sludge and noise to generate a novel, foreboding groove. Sometimes ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral afterimage.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, incorporating 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 especially hyperactive and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging combination of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion echoes the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend pioneered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her broadest music to date. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the gentle jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek merges the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They develop sinuous, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a novel, unconventional twist to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from 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 woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
