The Ten Best Global Records of 2025

Looking back on the musical landscape of worldwide sounds that defied expectations. We explore ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.

10. Sarathy Korwar – There Already Is Beauty

An album consisting of a single, extended movement of insistent drumming may not appear the most accessible listening experience. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this insistent rhythm into a strangely alluring piece. Leading an ensemble of three drummers, Korwar develops a complex percussive dialect throughout the record's ten sections. The work channels Steve Reich's phasing motifs combined with Indian classical phrasing, all anchored in the recurrence of a continual, driving motif. The longer one listens, this refrain begins to emulate the ceremonial rhythm of ritual music, drawing the listener deeper into Korwar's distinctive percussive world.

Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Remember I Forget

Coming off an hiatus of eight years, Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan re-emerges with a melancholy collection of songs. She expands on the Arabic-language, dub-tinged style that made her a staple in the Arab alternative scene since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is soft and ruminative, 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 wavering, yearning vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and understated, yet this minimalism creates the ideal canvas for Hamdan's emotive compositions to take center stage. It is well worth the wait.

Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down

From Mexico electronic artist Debit has a knack for uncanny reworkings of traditional music. On her most recent project, Desaceleradas, she turns her attention to the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a slowed, dubby take of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit drags this sound even further, filtering its characteristic synths and syncopated rhythm via veils of sludge and hiss to produce a new, sinister rhythm. At turns ambient and discomfiting, Debit transforms the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, spectral memory.

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

Sensory overload is the operative word for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Pioneering his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of sirens, pummeling bass tones and screamed lyrics on top of the classic Brazilian genre of baile funk. This captures the propulsive sound of urban celebrations. On his second album, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira ramps up the intensity, incorporating everything from techno kick drums to samples of the Islamic call to prayer into his unruly bruxaria mix. The result is a especially hyperactive and punishingly loud forty-minute sonic journey. Submit to the noise and Vieira's brash productions become unexpectedly exhilarating.

Number Six: Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Punjabi Disco

Religious vocalist Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a reissued masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks offer an remarkably engaging blend of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her fluid Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns mirrors the undulating tones of the tabla, while synthesiser melody replicates the classic sound of the reed organ on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Elsewhere, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya features a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a party blend delivered over a decade before the rise of Asian Underground music.

5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance

Mongolian singer Enji's gentle new release, Sonor, builds upon her jazz-influenced sound to deliver some of her most wide-ranging music yet. Stepping outside her training in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's 11 tracks range from the soft jazz-pop melodies of downtempo number Ulbar to the German spoken-word lyrics and twanging guitar lines of Unadag Dugui. The album also includes a lively, funk-inflected cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a live band rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound is still intimate, drawing the listener into the warm soundscape of her singular voice.

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

Inspired by the psychedelic tradition of Anatolian rock established by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's latest work alongside her group blends the metallic twang of the amplified traditional lute with dreamy Mellotron and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe anchored in Yıldırım's strong falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape sound. However, on Turkish standards such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group reaches vibrant new territory. They craft smooth, slow-burning grooves and powerful vocals that impart a new, unconventional interpretation to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Sacred music, Eastern European folk melodies and orchestral strings all come together on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's extraordinary latest work. Arranging music for the sixty-member Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett explore a vast range including the liturgical vocals of opener Overturn (Obertura de la Luz Eterna) to the theatrical interweaving lines of Aún Te Quiero and the syncopated reggaeton-inspired beats of the brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Yet, it is Pim