Our Ten Best Global Records of the Year 2025

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the global music that pushed boundaries. Here is a countdown of ten exceptional albums that defined the year in music.

Number Ten: The Percussionist Sarathy Korwar – There Is Beauty, There Already

A continuous, 40-minute suite of insistent drumming could sound like it isn't the easiest listening experience. However, south Asian drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar transforms this persistent pulse into a hypnotically captivating piece. Guiding an trio of three drummers, Korwar crafts a dense percussive dialect over the record's ten parts. The work references minimalist concepts from Steve Reich alongside classical Indian rhythmic patterns, all anchored in the repetition of a ongoing, pulsing motif. The longer one listens, this refrain evokes the trance-inducing cycles of ceremonial music, luring the listener further into Korwar's singular percussive universe.

Number Nine: Yasmine Hamdan – I Forget, I Remember

After an hiatus of eight years, 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 Middle Eastern independent music landscape since the nineties. Hamdan's voice is gentle and introspective, singing soft melodies over the bowing strings of a track like Hon and the rolling trip-hop groove of Vows. On livelier tracks such as Shadia and Abyss, she adopts a wavering, longing vibrato over Maghrebi-inspired synth melodies and clattering electronic percussion. The production is sparse and restrained, yet this austerity creates the perfect setting for Hamdan's emotive compositions to take center stage. The album proves to be well worth the wait.

Number Eight: The Mexican Producer Debit – Slowed Down

Mexican producer Debit excels at haunting reimaginings of archival audio. On her latest release, Desaceleradas, she focuses on the 90s style of cumbia rebajada – a decelerated, dubby interpretation of the rhythmic Latin American dance music genre. Debit slows this sound even further, filtering its signature synths and off-beat rhythm via veils of distortion and hiss to produce a fresh, menacing beat. Sometimes atmospheric and unsettling, Debit converts the joyous party music of cumbia into a enduring, ghostly afterimage.

7. The São Paulo Producer DJ K – Liberator Radio!

Sensory overload is the key term for the records of Brazilian producer Kaique Vieira, also known as DJ K. Coining his own genre of "bruxaria" (witchcraft), Vieira layers a tumult of alarms, explosive bass tones and shouted lyrics on top of the longstanding Brazilian dance style of baile funk. This emulates the energetic sound of favela street parties. On his new record, Radio Libertadora!, Vieira cranks up the energy, adding everything from techno kick drums to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer into his chaotic bruxaria mix. The result is a particularly manic and deafeningly intense 40-minute sonic journey. Give in to the assault and Vieira's bold productions become unexpectedly freeing.

Number Six: The Singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Disco Punjabi

Sikh devotional singer Mohinder Kaur Bhamra's record from 1982 of disco beats and Punjabi folk melodies is a newly appreciated masterpiece. Produced by her son, music producer Kuljit Bhamra, Punjabi Disco's ten tracks present an remarkably captivating combination of the sharp sound of electronic keyboards and programmed drums with her melismatic Indian classical singing style. Drum machine patterns echoes the rolling tones of the tabla, while synth lines parallels the traditional sound of the harmonium on tracks such as Pyar Mainu Kar. Meanwhile, Latin-inflected grooves is prominent on Soniya Mukh Tera, and Nainan Da Pyar De Gaya channels a up-tempo funky bass rhythm. It's a club-ready hybrid delivered over a decade before the Asian Underground explosion.

5. The Mongolian Artist Enji – Resonance

From Mongolia singer Enji's soft latest record, Sonor, expands on her jazz-inflected sound to offer some of her broadest music so far. Departing from her background in traditional Mongolian "long song" singing, the record's eleven songs range 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-tinged cover of the 1980s Mongolian classic Eejiinhee Hairaar. Showcasing a ensemble rather than her typical setup of guitar and bass, Sonor's sound manages to stay intimate, drawing the listener into the gentle soundscape of her distinctive voice.

Number Four: Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek – Yarın Yoksa

Drawing on the psychedelic tradition of Turkish psychedelia pioneered by groups such as Moğollar, German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım's new album with her band Grup Şimşek fuses the distinctive buzz of the amplified traditional lute with woozy keyboard and classic soul melodies. It's a nostalgic vibe rooted in Yıldırım's commanding falsetto and shaped by producer Leon Michels' analogue tape aesthetic. Yet, on classic Turkish songs such as the folk tune Hop Bico and 60s classic Ceylan, the group ventures into vibrant new territory. They create slinking, downtempo grooves and lifting vocals that give a novel, quirky spin to the Anatolian psychedelic style.

Number Three: The Colombian Artist Lido Pimienta – The Beauty

Catholic requiem mass music, Eastern European folk melodies and symphonic arrangements merge on Colombian singer Lido Pimienta's remarkable fourth album. Orchestrating music for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Pimienta and producer Owen Pallett journey through everything from 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 brass and woodwind-led El Dembow del Tiempo. Ultimately, it is Pim