This Ten Greatest Worldwide Records of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide music that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on repetitive drumming could sound like it isn't the most approachable listening experience. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic piece. Directing an group of three drummers, Korwar creates a intricate percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ritual music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Following an long absence, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a contemplative album of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and skittering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and understated, yet this simplicity creates the ideal setting for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
8. Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in eerie reinterpretations of archival audio. For her new album, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound to a near-halt, running its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through layers of sludge and noise to generate a novel, foreboding rhythm. Sometimes ambient and discomfiting, Debit morphs the celebratory party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a cacophony of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, adding everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly freeing.
Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued treasure. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually compelling combination of the synthetic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, 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 party blend created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian vocalist Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music to date. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the gentle 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 energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, pulling the listener into the warm soundscape of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group fuses the metallic twang of the electrified saz with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's powerful high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a fresh, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
