The Ten Most Outstanding Worldwide Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
Number Ten: Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive percussion could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive language throughout the record's 10 movements. His composition channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, yearning vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive songwriting to shine through. It is that justifies the wait.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reworkings of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of sludge and noise to produce a novel, foreboding groove. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly memory.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: 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 newly appreciated treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably compelling fusion of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks 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 lively, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They craft slinking, slow-burning grooves and lifting vocals that impart a new, off-kilter interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through a vast range including the Gregorian chants 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
