The Ten Greatest Worldwide Records of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide music that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming may not appear the easiest listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this driving beat into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive vocabulary across the record's ten sections. His composition draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the reiteration of a continual, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, luring the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive realm.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is soft and thoughtful, delivering delicate melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, longing vibrato against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and subtle, yet this austerity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to resonate. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
Number Eight: Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reinterpretations of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of distortion and noise to create a fresh, sinister groove. Periodically atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the records 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 on top of the enduring Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially frenetic and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating blend of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian singer Enji's gentle latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her most diverse music yet. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that give a new, off-kilter spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
