Behold! A voyaging quintent from out of time, space and untravelled highways of the mind! Lumerians are a curious bunch (based in San Francisco) who came in wayyyy under the radar near the start of the year and haven't left my digital turntables since then. 2013 is full of groove-laden throwbacks in every genre under the blue sky of planet Earth, but these boys keep the beat so well across The High Frontier that you can't help but feel a bit in awe as you spin it. Every song is a different breed of hypnosis, hallucinations given nuance and purposeful direction even when you have no clue where they're taking you. Hell, some of it is so catchy and interesting that it makes you wonder how well your own favorite dopesmokers would have fared in comparison a few decades back ('Dogon Genesis', the title track).

The prerequisites to sitting back and loving the living shit out of this sophomore release do not necessarily entail being stoned all the way to Jupiter and back before pressing play, but it definitely doesn't hurt. Either way, the level of craft and talent to create a time machine like this was a no-brainer for my own end of the year lineup, so I'd recommend hopping aboard and see what you think.

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.

Hey there boys and girls! Didn't get your melancholic heavy prog-rock rock fix this year? Did Riverside's Shrine Of New Generation Slaves feel a bit too safe to your ears? Do you love Poland? And finally, would you be happy if there was another band out there who could out-prog Riverside at their own game?

If my inquisition begets even a single yes, then guess what? You need to dive into Votum and their 3rd LP Harvest Moon IMMEDIATELY! Because it is a MONSTER.

I had my fair share of pickings this year as far as heavier, alt-rock tinged prog goes this year, but none of them are quite as muscular, and dare I say it - haunting - as this release is. The first half of the album in particular, which runs from 'Vicious Circle' through 'Numb', is all killer and no filler. Every element at fore, whether it's Maciej Kosinski and his rich, strangely pure vocal delivery or the insidious bass of Bartek Turkowski, is mixed and mastered to such a sharp degree of clarity that these already excellent songs take on unnatural lives of their own. And if that isn't the mark of a truly special album in this day and age...I don't know what is.

And speaking of the songs, we're taken to a number of dark places lyrically, with death being quite a prevalent destination in many of 'em. Take 'Cobwebs' for instance - "A kiss, the last she'd ever give / Ain't it just as if we said goodbye? / The smile on her lips / As she melted into darkness...

Still, when every song is an earworm and the record in question has such excellent pacing that its over before you know it, perhaps we can afford to let some shadow in.