This Ten Best Global Records of 2025

Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that pushed boundaries. Presenting a selection of ten notable albums that shaped the year in music.

10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming may not appear the most approachable musical proposition. Yet, Indian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar converts this persistent pulse into a unexpectedly magnetic album. Leading an trio of three drummers, Korwar creates a complex percussive language throughout the record's ten sections. The album references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich as well as classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the recurrence of a persistent, pulsing motif. Over its duration, this refrain begins to emulate the trance-inducing cycles of devotional music, pulling the listener deeper into Korwar's unique percussive world.

Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

Following an hiatus of eight years, Arab vocalist and composer Yasmine Hamdan makes a comeback with a mournful collection of songs. The work builds upon the Arabic-sung, dub-influenced aesthetic that established her as a fixture in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's vocal delivery is soft and introspective, delivering delicate melodies over the string arrangements of a track like Hon and the deep trip-hop groove of Vows. For more upbeat numbers such as Shadia and Abyss, she employs a trembling, longing vibrato against north African synth lines and skittering electronic percussion. The album's sound is sparse and restrained, yet this minimalism offers the perfect canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to shine through. The album proves to be truly deserving of the long anticipation.

8. Debit – Desaceleradas

From Mexico producer Debit specializes in haunting reimaginings of traditional music. On her new album, Desaceleradas, she zeroes in on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby interpretation of the shuffling Latin American musical style. Debit drags this sound even further, running its signature synths and off-beat rhythm through sheets of distortion and noise to generate a new, foreboding beat. Periodically atmospheric and discomfiting, Debit morphs the joyous party music of cumbia into a persistent, ethereal memory.

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

Maximalism is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, who performs as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a cacophony of sirens, explosive bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the enduring Brazilian genre of baile funk. This recreates the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira escalates the ferocity, incorporating everything from driving techno rhythms to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a notably frenetic and overwhelmingly noisy 40-minute listening experience. Give in to the noise and Vieira's bold productions become strangely liberating.

6. Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's early-80s release of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Recorded by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably compelling combination of the metallic sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical vocal technique. Drum machine patterns mimics the wavelike tones of the traditional drums, while synth lines replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, bossa nova rhythm comes to the fore on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a driving walking disco bassline. It's a dancefloor fusion pioneered more than ten years before the Asian Underground explosion.

5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Sonor

From Mongolia vocalist Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, expands on her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her broadest music yet. Stepping outside her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks travel from the soft Norah Jones-esque melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German-language narration 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. Utilizing a ensemble rather than her usual setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still close, drawing the listener into the tender soundscape of her distinctive voice.

4. Derya Yıldırım and Her Band – If There Is No Tomorrow

Drawing on the 60s heritage of Anatolian rock pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's third record alongside her group merges the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with drifting keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a retro-70s aesthetic grounded in Yıldırım's powerful falsetto and influenced by producer Leon Michels' warm, tape-saturated sound. Yet, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 1960s song Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They create smooth, downtempo grooves and powerful vocals that impart a new, off-kilter twist to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

3. Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian-born singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member 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 theatrical counterpoint melodies of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated dembow rhythms of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim