New Zealand isn't exactly known as one of 2013's rap mecca countries in today's increasingly diverse international hip-hop community. But if you were gonna pluck but one NZ talented fella from the web of rymes and DIY aesthetica, David Dallas would be your boy. Armed to the teeth with a lighter-than-air flow and the beautifully nuanced production of Fire & Ice (who've worked with Freddie Gibbs and a number of other talents), David brings his Auckland experiences into vivid, biting focus over the course of twelve snappy cuts. And like a big cloud all alone in the sky, we're right up in the stratosphere alongside him as he drifts over jazzy mediations ('Gotta Know'), choral, moody explorations of the inner mind ('My Mentality') and even the distance and longing a person experiences when departing to another place away from the people you love ('The Gate').

It's not a stretch to say most hip-hop albums are relatively personal in nature to the MC who orchestrate these LPs, mixtapes and other fare. In fact, the discographies of hip-hop stars, big and small alike, resemble biographies more than collections of purposely diverse songs that tread more obtuse territory. But while the subject matter here won't blow your mind to smithereens, David Dallas has a knack for songwriting, hooks and atmosphere that even some of the top guys at the peak of the game are severely lacking.

A surprising number of hip-hop and rap releases left me cold this year. This one however, like its title, falls exactly where it needs to and leaves you musing even as those jazzy horns fade into the silence.

One day a few years back, three talented museos led by guitar virtuoso / singer-songwriter Petteri Sariola took up residence in a centuries old cabin out in the middle of god forsaken Finland, a locale so remote and ill-kept that even black mold feared to tread its inner architecture. After lighting up a few bongs and torching a couple tequila shots, they pulled out their gear and decided to record an album on the premises over the course of a week despite having no songs written.

That trio was Dead Sirius 3000, and that album is their debut masterpiece Get Sirius, an utterly inspired exercise in fluid popcraft and spontaneity that many a rock band out there these days would kill to have to their credit.

Despite the fact that all twelve songs were literally composed and recorded within hours, sometimes even minutes of setting up camp, they're all sensational. Hell, just the first six songs alone are packed with enough hooks and salient passages to fill up a warehouse meat locker to full capacity and beyond. And some songs in particular, such as the Chick Corea-turned-folk rocker 'She Was A Woman' and the 3-1/2 minutes of pop perfection known as 'The Hole', are good enough to rule the world for at least 15 minutes if someone had the balls to promote these fellas on radio.

But this album wouldn't have made my list if it was merely just an exceptional pop record. No, these guys are chameleons of the absolute best kind. A trippy and aptly-named little number called 'Mushrooms' serves as an interlude into a raw, Southern fried take on modern radio R&B with 'Hands Down', only to shift gears again into a tasty trip-rock fix with 'Bleed Out' and even your fair share of QOTSA atmospheric alt. rock in 'Gimme A Break' and 'Daddy's Bottle'. In other words, there's a LOT of diversity across these songs, which makes this debut both very immediate yet fully warranting multiple spins just to take in the complete scope of what this trio offers.

Modern pop/rock radio may be dead in 2013....but if you have to be dead, you might as well stick with being Dead Sirius.