This 10 Greatest International Releases of 2025

Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten exceptional albums that shaped the year in music.

10. Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already

An album consisting of a single, extended movement of repetitive percussion may not appear the easiest listening experience. But, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this insistent rhythm into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Guiding an group of three drummers, Korwar develops a intricate percussive vocabulary throughout the record's ten parts. The work draws from minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the reiteration of a ongoing, thrumming figure. Over its duration, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.

9. The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember

After an eight-year break, Arab singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a melancholy set of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-language, dub-influenced sound that cemented her status in the Arab alternative scene since the 1990s. Hamdan's voice is gentle and introspective, singing tender melodies atop 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 employs a trembling, yearning vocal technique over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and rattling electronic percussion. The album's sound is minimal and restrained, yet this austerity offers the perfect environment for Hamdan's expressive lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be well worth the wait.

8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of archival audio. For her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American dance music genre. Debit decelerates this sound to a near-halt, processing its characteristic synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and static to generate a novel, foreboding beat. Sometimes atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit transforms the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a enduring, spectral afterimage.

Number Seven: The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Radio Libertadora!

Sensory overload is the key term for the output of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira stacks a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics over the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of neighborhood block parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up 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 hyperactive and punishingly loud 40-minute listening experience. Submit to the cacophony and Vieira's bold productions become oddly exhilarating.

Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco music and traditional Punjabi tunes is a reissued gem. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an unusually captivating combination of the metallic sound of 1980s synthesisers and programmed drums with her fluid classical Indian singing style. Electronic percussion mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines doubles the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. At other times, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya boasts a fast-paced disco bass groove. It's a dancefloor fusion delivered more than ten years before the global breakthrough of South Asian electronic music.

Number Five: The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor

Mongolian vocalist Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Departing from her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs travel from the gentle jazz-pop melodics of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a energetic, funk-tinged cover of the 80s Mongolian pop hit Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, inviting the listener into the warm acoustics of her unique voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa

Inspired by the 1960s legacy of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album alongside her group blends the electric jangle of the electrified saz with dreamy Mellotron and soulful tunes. It's a 1970s throwback sound grounded in Yıldırım's strong high register and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They create smooth, slow-burning grooves and soaring vocals that give a new, unconventional twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

3. The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – La Belleza

Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett traverse everything from the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim