Our Ten Finest International Releases of 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the international music that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. However, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive dialect over the record's ten sections. The work references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the repetition of a persistent, pulsing motif. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a trembling, longing vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this simplicity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to resonate. It is truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at haunting reworkings of traditional music. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound even further, processing its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of murk and hiss to create a fresh, foreboding groove. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload 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 stacks a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably engaging blend of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the classic sound of the harmonium 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 features a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor
From Mongolia singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the gentle 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 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, pulling the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member MedellĂn 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 theatrical interweaving lines of AĂşn Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
