The 10 Best Global Records of the Year 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten remarkable albums that shaped the year in music.
10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion might not seem the easiest musical proposition. However, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar turns this driving beat into a strangely alluring work. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar crafts a complex percussive dialect throughout the record's ten parts. The work draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as traditional Indian musical phrasing, all anchored in the reiteration of a continual, driving figure. As the album progresses, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive universe.
9. Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember
Coming off an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that made her a staple in the Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and ruminative, delivering delicate melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rumbling trip-hop beat of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, yearning vibrato over north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and understated, yet this minimalism provides the perfect canvas for Hamdan's deeply felt compositions to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down
From Mexico electronic artist Debit specializes in haunting reinterpretations of traditional music. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American musical style. Debit slows this sound down to a crawl, processing its signature synths and syncopated rhythm via layers of sludge and hiss to produce a novel, menacing rhythm. Sometimes atmospheric and uneasy, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal afterimage.
7. DJ K – Radio Libertadora!
Maximalism is the key term for the records of São Paulo producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a onslaught of alarms, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This recreates the driving sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, adding everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and overwhelmingly noisy forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.
6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco
Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's 1982 album of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an unusually compelling blend of the sharp sound of early synthesizers and programmed drums with her melismatic classical Indian singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synth lines 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 boasts a fast-paced funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.
5. Enji – Resonance
From Mongolia singer Enji's delicate latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging 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 spoken-word lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the tender acoustics of her distinctive voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Inspired by the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek blends the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic anchored in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. But, on classic Turkish songs such as the nursery rhyme Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They craft slinking, downtempo grooves and soaring vocals that give a fresh, unconventional spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Sacred music, Czech harpsichord folksong and symphonic arrangements all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning latest work. Orchestrating music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from 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 woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim
