Our Ten Greatest Worldwide Records of 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide music that defied expectations. We explore ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical drumming may not appear the most approachable listening experience. Yet, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating album. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten sections. The album references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the repetition of a continual, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive realm.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful album of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, singing delicate melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vibrato over north African synth lines and rattling electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to take center stage. This is a record that justifies the wait.
8. Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of murk and static to create a fresh, foreboding beat. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal memory.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This captures the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly captivating blend of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced walking disco bassline. It's a party blend pioneered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to present some of her most diverse music to date. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo 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. Featuring a ensemble rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the electrified saz with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's commanding 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 ventures into dynamic new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that impart a fresh, unconventional spin 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 singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the liturgical vocals 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 brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
