Our 10 Best International Records of the Year 2025

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten notable albums that characterized the year in music.

Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming may not appear the easiest listening experience. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a hypnotically captivating work. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language across the record's ten parts. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the reiteration of a ongoing, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.

Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

Following an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a mournful collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced aesthetic that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and thoughtful, delivering soft melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the ideal canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.

Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down

From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for eerie reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound even further, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through layers of murk and static to generate a novel, sinister groove. Periodically ambient and uneasy, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal echo.

7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sheer intensity is the key term for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics over the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the intensity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly frenetic and punishingly loud forty-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely freeing.

6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly engaging fusion of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike 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 takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor

Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music to date. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, drawing the listener into the tender acoustics of her unique voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Drawing on the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound anchored in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into lively new territory. They craft sinuous, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.

3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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 rhythmic dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim