Our Ten Best Global Records of 2025
Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten remarkable albums that defined the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming might not seem the most accessible listening experience. But, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic work. Leading an group of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive vocabulary over the record's ten sections. The album channels the phasing techniques of Steve Reich alongside traditional Indian musical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, pulsing figure. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's singular percussive realm.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
After an long absence, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged sound that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and thoughtful, singing tender melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop groove of Vows. During more energetic moments such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is sparse and understated, yet this simplicity creates the perfect environment for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit excels at eerie reinterpretations of historical sounds. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected take of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of sludge and noise to generate a new, sinister beat. Periodically ambient and unsettling, Debit transforms the exuberant dancefloor sound of cumbia into a persistent, ghostly afterimage.
Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sensory overload is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira piles a onslaught of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, throwing in everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued 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 drum machines with her ornate Indian classical singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the undulating tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to offer some of her most diverse music so far. Moving away from her training 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 sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, pulling the listener into the tender acoustics of her singular voice.
Number Four: Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – Yarın Yoksa
Drawing on the 1960s legacy of Turkish psychedelia established by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek merges the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with drifting Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a nostalgic vibe 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 finds dynamic new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that impart a new, quirky twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member 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 theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. It is Pim