Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, the great Carl Jung said that the pendulum of the mind alternates not between right and wrong, but between sense and nonsense. A rather fiendish perspective of our psychological habitations to be sure, but one that seems more and more true whenever the bong-ripping rhythms of duo Shpongle happen to shamble their way into my virtual nightly turntable, which is what happened quite often in the second half of 2013.

Despite how fresh & modern their take on World Music/Trance hybridization has remained since their formation in 1998, the kings of psybient have an elusive primordial quality to the musical tapestry they've assembled on each LP that pulls you back to eras long past, those lost years where man danced naked under the light of the moon and the winds and rains were gods that needed to be communed with even as you struggled to appease their whims.

So fifteen years into their career and many good albums later, how does Museum Of Consciousness fare? Sense and nonsense certainly abound in equal measure, with some songs coalescing into a clear direction early on ('Brain In A Fishtank') whilst others feel fit to have your brainwaves wander a plethora of astral planes before crashing you back down to Earth ('The Aquatic Garden Of Extra-Celestial Delights'). The flutes, the skull-reverberating synthesizers and all the insidious grooves and texturing you expect reappear in full and glorious prominence...and, if anything, they sound better than they ever have before.

Like all iconic bands & projects in their respective spheres of influence these days, Shpongle would have been hard pressed to reinvent the wheel without alienating their audience under even the most ideal of circumstances. But if the music is this engrossing despite its familiarity...do you really need to? Rave on!! \m/

It's been a long, long journey to get to 2013 for the world's oldest progressive metal band: 31 freakin' years in fact. After cementing the genre alongside Iron Maiden, Queensrÿche and a couple of others, the 90's and 00's brought countless imitators and competitors, and since 2004 the band that started it all has remained in a state of uncertain hermitage until Darkness Of A Different Light emerged a month or so ago out of a 10 year abyss. That's a pretty damn long gap between albums...so how good could it really be?

In one word, I'll go ahead and say phenomenal. Anyone with a passing interest in heavy metal at all is probably familiar with the guitar prowess of Jim Matheos and the distinctive tenor of long time Texan vocalist Ray Alder, but even if you've never heard a Fates Warning album before, you'd be quite impressed with this one. Its crushingly heavy, very melodic and despite being primarily guitar driven, the songs are superb and rank among the most distinct they've ever laid to the recording pasture.

This sucker is simply a winner through and through. Looking for a thrash-oriented number to add to your DJ Plug queue? Opening song 'One Thousand Fires' is your new best friend. Into the more modern groove of bands like Tool & Karnivool? Take 'Firefly' and 'I Am' on for size and let Alder's voice pull you into the sky. And for anyone who wants to hear an example of how to do a 14-minute epic right, there's closing cut 'And Yet It Moves' to satisfy your hankerin' for a deep-dish progger.

There are many bands out there who certainly qualify as "progressive" metal...but there's only one Fates Warning. And if there was ever an album to give you that segue into their fascinating dimension, 2013 just delivered it on a shiny silver platter.

A little disclaimer going into this: forget CHVRCHES. Forget Lorde. Forget Haim or whatever half-baked "retro" 80's synth-pop acts topped your list this year. They all suck compared to the uncanny brilliance illustrated by St. Lucia's magnificent debut When The Night, sax and all. I mean, seriously dudes...go ahead, try to find a better indie-pop album this year, cause it ain't The 1975 or whatever Pitchfork-endorsed poseurs pass for pop sensationalists in this corner o' the century.

Honestly, I've heard my fair share of indie-pop and "chillwave" and everything in between over what feels like a decade or more at this point. For every decent album with actual hooks and some nuance there's 50 more records of disposable garbage without any real personality or staying power. So you can imagine how surprised I was when the single best indie-anything album I've heard since Wincing The Night Away back in 2007 happens to get recommended to me out of the blue by a band I was already following.

What struck me like a thunderbolt was this act's strange yet entrancing tropical vibe, an atmosphere conjured from some nether realm between The Flaming Lips, Wild Nothing and Lionel Ritchie. I spun the album's lead single 'Elevate' over and over again for the following 24 hours like my life depended on it: I subsequently learned that the damn thing is auditory crack-cocaine with gated drums.

Flash forward a month or so later, and I get to hear the whole record. Lo' and behold, I learn that the rest of the album is just as good yet nothing like it in some respects...and that's just more to this debut record's credit methinks: it changes things up enough from song to song to keep you invested, yet it never sheds its festive mood. A real record with a raison d'etre to match, conceived and produced from the ground up by the sort of trendy Brooklyn act that wouldn't survive 5 seconds in a mosh pit...who woulda ever thunk it.

Vocalist and band mastermind Jean-Philip Grobler is a strange creature: his voice isn't particularly strong or unique on its own, but his songcrafting prowess rivals some of the best pop acts of the 80's. For example, a tune like 'Closer Than This' starts off with synthesizer line straight out of a Survivor album before morphing into a lilting, call-and-response slice of pop nirvana...and the song isn't even half over yet by this point!

But enough rambling: I can't think of a more crowded musical arena outside of metal in 2013 than the mainstream oriented, ADD-riddled landscape of pop music, but if there was some kind of race to see who could put together the end-all to end-all of "nu-80's" pop albums before Xmas came and went, I'd say St. Lucia is the clear winner by a landslide of sunshine, coconuts and tiki dancers.

So, I'll be the first to admit it: the phrase "one of the best kept secrets in ____"is a bonafide cliche. Say two different people pick two completely different obscure records nobody's ever heard of: I'd bet you $50 and a three day old pizza that each will say their respective record is a best kept secret even if neither actually is. xD

Yet every so often, you WILL find albums that turn cliches on their head: for me, the album that falls into the previously mentioned cliche category would be this latest one from Austin, TX power-pop favorites Blue Cartoon. Five albums into their career since the 90's, why these guys never got huge in that heyday alongside groups like Guster, Jellyfish, Foo Fighters, the New Radicals, etc. has always been a mystery to me. They're gorgeously guitar driven, catchy to an unprecedented degree and seem capable of pretty much doing anything they set their mind to musically. They're a camaraderie equipped with musical magic in all the right places, that one-in-a-million outfit capable of taking over the planet if someone could simply get their existence across to all those Beatles and Badfinger fanclubs who waste their time searching for rare F-sides on vinyl of said bands.

Still, I'm not much for nostalgia or speculation: Are You Getting On? is a spectacular album whatever your parameters, one that could have topped my list in any year. The fact it happens to be 2013 is of no consequence whatsoever, and might be something of a plus depending on your own tastes.

Expect a very 70's styled album in any case though. Unlike their last few albums, they're drawing upon a very unique crossover bent which incorporates psychedelia and more experimental ideas into their core West Coast power pop signature blend, and the results are sublime to say the least. Whether they're cruising down a fuzz-lined highway with their sitar/guitar/keyboard interplay on 'Remission' or even throwing a flute into the mix on 'Pity Party', these guys pull no punches. And when you take a moment to consider the skintight drumming talents of powerhouse Mike Reynolds and the slick, knotty basswork of Lee Elliott that levitate the group's already stellar sound right off the ground...hell, I'm simply sad that the majority of people this year missed the boat on this one, because its a killer ride in the biggest, baddest 70's-sounding muscle car I've heard in over a decade.

So, who likes any of the bands I mentioned so far in this review? If you don't fall in love with Blue Cartoon like I did after going through this LP based on what I've said so far, I will serve you my left arm (and armpit) in mustard sauce with a slice of pineapple. Such is a small price to pay to get an album this good into the collections of people who are looking for something truly special in 2013.