The 10 Best Global Records of the Year 2025
As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the worldwide sounds that expanded horizons. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that characterized the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive percussion might not seem the easiest musical proposition. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. His composition channels minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the repetition of a ongoing, pulsing refrain. As the album progresses, this refrain starts to mirror the ceremonial rhythm of ceremonial music, pulling the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Coming off an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy album of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that established her as a fixture in the region's indie music scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's vocal delivery is gentle and thoughtful, singing delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a quivering, longing vocal technique over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The production is lean and restrained, yet this simplicity creates the ideal canvas for Hamdan's expressive compositions to resonate. The album proves to be truly deserving of the wait.
Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico producer Debit specializes in eerie reworkings of traditional music. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound to a near-halt, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of sludge and noise to generate a fresh, sinister groove. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a lasting, spectral memory.
Number Seven: DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Sheer intensity is the operative word for the output of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Inventing his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of urban celebrations. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the energy, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a especially manic and deafeningly intense forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued gem. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually captivating blend of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her ornate Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mirrors the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm takes center stage on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
Number Five: Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate fourth album, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music to date. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's selection of pieces range from the soft jazz-pop melodics of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word 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 full backing band rather than her standard setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound remains personal, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – If There Is No Tomorrow
Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches lively new territory. They create slinking, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that impart a new, unconventional spin to the Turkish psych sound.
Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty
Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through 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 syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
