The 10 Best International Records of 2025

The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of global releases that expanded horizons. We explore ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.

10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already

A continuous, 40-minute suite of cyclical percussion might not seem the most accessible musical proposition. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring work. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive language across the record's ten sections. The album channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, driving refrain. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.

Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember

Coming off an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful set of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged aesthetic that cemented her status in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and introspective, delivering tender melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a wavering, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt songwriting to take center stage. This is a record well worth the long anticipation.

8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico producer Debit has a knack for uncanny reimaginings of archival audio. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit decelerates this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm via layers of distortion and hiss to create a new, menacing groove. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ghostly afterimage.

7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Maximalism is the defining principle for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of neighborhood block parties. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and punishingly loud 40-minute sonic journey. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly liberating.

6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an strikingly captivating fusion of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

5. Enji – Resonance

From Mongolia singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Moving away from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains close, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her singular voice.

Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a new, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore everything from 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. Ultimately, it is Pim