Our Ten Greatest Global Releases of 2025
The past twelve months have offered a rich tapestry of worldwide releases that defied expectations. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.
Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty
An album consisting of a single, extended movement of cyclical percussion might not seem the easiest listening experience. Yet, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a strangely alluring album. Directing an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a dense percussive dialect throughout the record's 10 movements. The work references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as Indian classical phrasing, each grounded in the recurrence of a ongoing, thrumming figure. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the hypnotic repetition of devotional music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.
Number Nine: The Lebanese Artist Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget
Following an eight-year break, Lebanese vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. It continues exploring the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is quiet and ruminative, delivering soft melodies atop the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop beat of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she uses a trembling, longing vibrato against electronic lines with North African flavors and clattering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and subtle, yet this minimalism provides the ideal environment for Hamdan's emotive lyricism to shine through. The album proves to be that justifies the wait.
8. The Mexican Producer Debit – Desaceleradas
Mexican producer Debit has a knack for haunting reworkings of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 1990s variant of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dub-inflected version of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, processing its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through veils of murk and static to produce a novel, menacing beat. Periodically ambient and discomfiting, Debit morphs the celebratory dancefloor sound of cumbia into a lasting, ethereal echo.
7. DJ K – Liberator Radio!
Sensory overload is the defining principle for the music of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, AKA DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This emulates the driving sound of favela street parties. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the ferocity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably manic and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become oddly liberating.
Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi
Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks deliver an strikingly engaging combination of the sharp sound of 1980s synthesisers and drum machines with her fluid classical Indian vocal technique. Electronic percussion mirrors the wavelike tones of the tabla, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, bossa nova rhythm is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a driving walking disco bassline. It's a party blend created more than ten years before the rise of Asian Underground music.
Number Five: Enji – Sonor
Mongolian singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, develops her jazz-inflected sound to present some of her most wide-ranging music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks veer from the soft jazz-pop melodies of slow-burning number Ulbar to the German-language narration lyrics and trilling guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a sprightly, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Featuring a full backing band rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay personal, inviting the listener into the gentle soundscape of her singular voice.
4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow
Channeling the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the electric jangle of the amplified traditional lute with woozy Mellotron and R&B-inflected lines. It's a 1970s throwback sound rooted in Yıldırım's strong high register and shaped by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group finds lively new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that impart a fresh, off-kilter spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.
3. Lido Pimienta – La Belleza
Gregorian chants, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's stunning fourth album. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the Gregorian chants of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the dramatic interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the rhythmic reggaeton-inspired beats of the woodwind-heavy El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim
