Our 10 Best International Releases of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of international music that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.
10. The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
The concept of a 40-minute, uninterrupted piece built on insistent percussion may not appear the most approachable listening experience. However, south Asian percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar turns this insistent rhythm into a hypnotically captivating piece. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive vocabulary over the record's 10 movements. The album references Steve Reich's phasing motifs alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, each grounded in the repetition of a continual, driving refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan returns with a melancholy collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-sung, dub-tinged aesthetic that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is quiet and thoughtful, delivering tender melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, longing vocal technique over north African synth lines and clattering electronic percussion. The musical backdrop is lean and understated, yet this austerity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's deeply felt lyricism to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican electronic artist Debit specializes in uncanny reinterpretations of historical sounds. For her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance genre. Debit drags this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and static to create a new, sinister beat. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit converts the exuberant party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral echo.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the music of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the energetic sound of urban celebrations. On his follow-up release, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and deafeningly intense forty-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become strangely exhilarating.
6. The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a rediscovered masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an remarkably engaging blend of the metallic sound of early synthesizers and drum machines with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Electronic percussion echoes the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synthesiser melody parallels the traditional sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a club-ready hybrid created over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to deliver some of her broadest music to date. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces travel from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, Turkish-born, Germany-based singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds dynamic new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a novel, off-kilter spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore 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 reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
