The Ten Greatest Worldwide Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide music that expanded horizons. We explore ten remarkable albums that characterized the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming might not seem the easiest listening experience. But, Indian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating piece. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. The work references Steve Reich's phasing motifs as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing figure. The longer one listens, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of devotional music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive world.
Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
After an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, singing soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a quivering, yearning vocal technique over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The production is minimal and understated, yet this austerity offers the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to take center stage. It is truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reinterpretations of archival audio. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound down to a crawl, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of distortion and hiss to generate a fresh, menacing beat. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit converts the celebratory party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral afterimage.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the intensity, throwing in everything from four-on-the-floor techno beats to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his frantic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and deafeningly intense 40-minute listening experience. Surrender to the cacophony and Vieira's brash productions become strangely liberating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered treasure. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually engaging combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody parallels the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid created more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most diverse music yet. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces veer from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, pulling the listener into the gentle acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a retro-70s aesthetic rooted in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They develop slinking, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that impart a new, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements converge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
