DJ Dead Alive - Slumber Party Massacre writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2013: David Toropov (DJ Dead Alive)

Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its members’ top albums of 2013. Our next list is from DJ David Toropov.

1. Kanye West – Yeezus (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   The most controversial record of my generation and the most dangerous piece of American music recorded since the suburbs freaked out over Marilyn Manson. People whose opinions I greatly respect have either hated or loved this record but no one has failed to be passionate about it. Is it a work of hypocrisy or of psychotically grand and taut ambitions? A masterpiece or a massively catastrophic experiment? On “Yeezus” we finally see the darkest corners of Kanye West’s imagination to witness him toss around nightmares of civil rights regressions and pornographic nymphomania fantasies clustered together over a concoction of Chicago drill, Jamaican dancehall, excavated 90's industrial and Bon Iver. I haven’t heard a musician put together sounds so disparate so flawlessly since Brian Wilson’s “SMiLE”. A deeply personal record that sees a brilliant artist and deeply flawed human being at war with himself, “Yeezus” is an untouchable lightning rod that will be as venomous as the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks for as long as we listen to pop music.
2. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (Daft Life/Columbia)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   By releasing Random Access Memories and producing a third of Yeezus, Daft Punk are either partially responsible or wholly responsible for the two best records I heard this year. After an excruciating eight year wait, the French house legends returned with a work that simultaneously looks back to a simpler era of proto-Disco smoothness and rockets pop music forward with walls of synthesized clicks and electronic heart beats. The key is to see the robot gimmick as an allegory for the desire to be human, to deeply feel and to have music be the vessel that gives life back to your memories.
3. M.I.A. – Mantangi (N.E.E.T./Interscope)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   Like Random Access Memories, Matangi is a record I feared would never see the light of day. Both M.I.A. and Daft Punk suffered massive backlashes after the public misunderstood and disowned the ambitious turning points of their last LPs (MAYA and Human After All, respectively) and both faced down their demons by returning to their roots.r. On each of her past LPs, M.I.A. attempted to keep the energy flow peppered non-stop from start to finish in compact bursts. Here, however, the music escalates, peaks and dips with finesse. Immaculate singles “Bring the Noize” (my pick for the song of the year) and “Bad Girls” are the glittering highlights but the true centerpiece is the relentless, dogged determination of “Come Walk With Me”. It’s an anthem of a woman with nothing to prove to anyone anymore, walking the path to personal fulfillment with intelligence and independence. Matangi soars as the most mature and assured collection of music M.I.A. has offered to date.
4. Sao Paulo Underground – Beija Flors E Sujo (Cuneiform)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   Every jazz musician in this generation has to make a choice between getting crushed by the legacy or exploding it. Will you die paying tribute to Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington for the rest of your life, or will you have the courage to move on and rewrite the rules? Jazz only really lives when it’s in the process of rewriting its own rules and thus Sao Paulo Underground is vital. Dipped in a bath of a Brazillian lust for life, hip-hop boom bap and Bitches Brew jazz atmospherics, this LP has layers of sounds that bely its small, three-piece ensemble led by Chicago jazz legend Ray Mazurek. Beija Flors Velho E Sujo is an acid drop test that rocks the bells from front to back and is the best jazz release I heard this year.
5. Sky Ferreira – Night Time, My Time (Columbia)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   The first time I heard “Boys” was one of those moments that reminds me why I devote so much of my life to music. It instantly hooked into me like ecstasy; floored me with its wall of sound production and incredible composition. The cover art alone is a perfect visual for what’s within: a seemingly fragile, disconnected, drug-broken songstress finding some kind of baptism in pop music. Yet the cover also exudes some of the darkness that lurks under the candyland surface. Arrested and jailed on drug possession not too long ago and a former Marc Jacobs model, Ferriera is Nico for kids raised on The Matrix. If you ever wanted to hear The Shangri-Las as if they we’re produced by Trent Reznor collaborating with Phil Spector, this album is for you and it will get you high as hell. The effortlessness with which it smashes your face in is breathtaking. Damn.
6. Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe (Glassnote)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   Forget the tired wax sculptures currently touring around without the essential Peter Hook claiming to be New Order, the heart of New Order is now beating in Scotland’s Chvrches. “Recover” grabbed my attention early in the year with its soaring vocal work layered on icy, pulsing synthesizers but it wasn’t until “The Mother We Share” dropped that Chvrches became a permanent part of my music library. The album delivered on the promise of their singles by being both danceable and prime headphone material; innovative and looking back towards the milestones of 80’s electronica.
7. Danny Brown – Old (Fool's Gold)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   This dude is straight up insane and I love it.
8. Deafheaven – Sunbather (Deathwish)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   A punishing, gorgeous record whose reputation is likely to increase dramatically with the passage of time, Sunbather has a unique sonic template that may never be fully duplicated.
9. Ghostface Killah – Twelve Reasons To Die: The Brown Tape (Soul Temple)
   BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
   
   This alternate version of “Twelve Reasons To Die” is superior for its idiosyncratic production style. “Fishscale” proved that Ghostface sounds like gold over soul samples and here Apollo Brown gives Tony Starks the soul his flow craves but with a penchant for tasteful, measured repetition with a healthy dose of vinyl pops and vintage gangster film samples. It turns out to be the ideal backdrop for the Wu’s greatest rapper and results in his best record in half a decade.
10. The Bronx – The Bronx IV (ATO)
    BUY: Reckless / Permanent / Insound / iTunes / eMusic
    
    One of the bright lights of punk rock in the 21st century, The Bronx kept their fans waiting for five years for a proper follow up to their 2008 self-titled LP. They did not disappoint with this album. “The Bronx IV” rocks triumphantly with hooks for days and a fascinating theme playing on tropes of the anti-Christ, the Holy Ghost and bible belt religious rites. I like to listen to “IV” as a sort of companion piece to The Thermals’ 2006 classic “The Body, The Blood, The Machine”. Both LPs are inspired punk stands against the dangers and conformity of organized religion in positions of power and sound divine in the process.

Honorable Mentions

• Blood Orange - Cupid Deluxe (Domino)
  Nacho Picasso - High & Mighty (self-released)
  Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels (Fool's Gold)
  Lizzo - Lizzobangers (Totally Gross National Product)
  TREE - Sunday School II: When Church Lets Out (Closed Sessions)
  TV Ghost - Disconnect (In The Red)
  Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody - Black Horses (Goodnight)
  Disclosure - Settle (Island)
  This Routine Is Hell - Howl (Cobra/Shield/Ruins)
  Colin Stetson - New History of Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light (Constellation)
  
  Songs of the Year:
  “Bring the Noize” - M.I.A.
  “Boys” - Sky Ferriera
  “Pusher Love Girl” - Justin Timberlake
  “The Mother We Share” - Chvrches
  “Get Lucky” - Daft Punk
  “Watch Out For This (Bumaye)” - Major Lazer
  “W.E.R.K. Pt. II” – Lizzo
  
  Shout out to Joey Keithley from D.O.A. for putting on the best punk show I’ve ever seen this year at Reggie’s. Happy retirement, you earned it.