Our 10 Greatest International Releases of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of international music that defied expectations. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical drumming could sound like it isn't the most accessible musical proposition. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar transforms this driving beat into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive language across the record's ten sections. The album references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the reiteration of a ongoing, thrumming motif. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, singing soft melodies atop the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, longing vocal technique against Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and restrained, yet this austerity provides the perfect environment for Hamdan's emotive songwriting to shine through. It is well worth the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
Mexican producer Debit specializes in haunting reimaginings of traditional music. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound even further, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of murk and static to generate a fresh, foreboding rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal echo.
7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Maximalism is the defining principle for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a tumult of alarms, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the classic Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the noise and Vieira's unapologetic productions become unexpectedly liberating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually compelling combination of the synthetic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most diverse music yet. Moving away from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft 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 lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's commanding high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches dynamic new territory. They develop sinuous, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Catholic requiem mass music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. 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 dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
