Our 10 Finest Global Records of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide music that defied expectations. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of repetitive drumming might not seem the most approachable listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating album. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive vocabulary throughout the record's 10 movements. The album draws from the phasing techniques of Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing figure. Over its duration, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's unique percussive universe.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a contemplative set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is quiet and thoughtful, singing soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, longing vocal technique over electronic lines with North African flavors and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is minimal and understated, yet this minimalism provides the perfect setting for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to take center stage. It is well worth the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of sludge and hiss to produce a fresh, foreboding rhythm. At turns ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of sirens, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, adding everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably captivating blend of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mirrors the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo disco bass groove. It's a party blend delivered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
Mongolian vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, pulling the listener into the warm soundscape of her unique voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group fuses the electric jangle of the electrified saz with drifting Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that impart a fresh, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
