Our 10 Most Outstanding Global Records of the Year 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide releases that pushed boundaries. We explore ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent percussion could sound like it isn't the most accessible listening experience. But, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring piece. Guiding an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive dialect over the record's ten sections. His composition channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich combined with classical Indian rhythmic patterns, everything tethered in the repetition of a continual, driving figure. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the hypnotic repetition of ritual music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and introspective, singing tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a wavering, yearning vibrato against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and understated, yet this simplicity provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to take center stage. The album proves to be that justifies the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit excels at eerie reworkings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby version of the shuffling Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound even further, running its signature synths and syncopated rhythm through veils of distortion and static to produce a novel, foreboding groove. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit morphs the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a onslaught of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, incorporating everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the assault and Vieira's brash productions become oddly freeing.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually compelling fusion of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia vocalist Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the gentle Norah Jones-esque melodies 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 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Utilizing a full backing band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, drawing the listener into the gentle acoustics of her distinctive voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the 60s heritage of Turkish psychedelia established 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 dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe grounded in Yıldırım's commanding high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group ventures into dynamic new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a new, quirky spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece 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 dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim
