Stephen Mejias
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Audiophile Essentials Packages Now Available
News, Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • May 10, 2013 • 0 comments
Stereophile celebrated 50 years of continuous publication in November 2012 and released its milestone 400th issue in May. The magazine remains committed to providing all audiophiles—young, old, enthusiastic newbies, and grumpy veterans alike—the tools necessary to get the very best from their systems and music libraries. To that end, we’ve bundled our hot-selling Recommended Components Collector’s Edition and our invaluable test discs into two neat and affordable Audiophile Essentials packages.
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Music Discovery: “Games Without Frontiers”
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • May 08, 2013 • 9 comments
In today’s previous entry, I mentioned that Standish/Carlyon’s Deleted Scenes reminded me of Peter Gabriel’s early solo work. Fans of FX’s outstanding TV series, “The Americans,” will have noted that the season’s finale made fine use of Gabriel’s hit single “Games Without Frontiers.” That is, if those fans were already familiar with the song. I was not.
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Listen: Standish/Carlyon’s Deleted Scenes
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • May 08, 2013 • 0 comments
Conrad Standish and Tom Carlyon are formerly of the Australian noir-rock trio Devastations. While that band’s thoughtful, honest work could bring a listener to tears, Deleted Scenes, Standish and Carlyon’s debut as a duo, is much more interested in physical pleasures.
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Payday Albums: 4/12/13 & 4/26/13
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Apr 26, 2013 • 4 comments
Whenever I post one of these entries, there are at least a couple of readers who ask for reviews of the albums I’ve listed. And while such requests are quite reasonable, they take for granted that I’ve actually listened to all of these albums. Sadly, I have not.

Even sadder, I still haven’t listened to the albums I bought last payday.

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Markus Popp: Calidostópia!
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Apr 11, 2013 • 0 comments
Electronic composer Markus Popp (Oval) may be best known for his terse, angular, and rhythmically complex micro-compositions, but he seems increasingly interested in making full-fledged songs.

With Calidostópia!, recently released as a download, he’s combined the glitchy pointillism of previous releases, such as 2010’s fascinating O (which I used as a test disc in my “Follow-Up” review of Simaudio’s versatile i3.3 integrated amplifier), with the voices of seven South American singers: Agustín Albrieu of Argentina; Andrés Gualdrón of Columbia; Maité Gadea of Uruguay; Hana Kobayashi of Venezuela; and Dandara Modesto, Aiace Felix, and Emilia Suto of Brazil.

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Payday Albums: 3/29/13
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Mar 29, 2013 • 8 comments
Today’s payday. I bought just one title.
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When Saints Go Machine: "Love and Respect"
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Mar 27, 2013 • 0 comments
The strange trembling vocals, warm synth sounds, and chamber pop movements of Konkylie, When Saints Go Machine’s full-length debut, appealed to me in unusual fashion: slowly at first, confounding my senses for a time, before finally winning me over. With time and repeated listening, the album became one of my very favorites of 2011.
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Sarah Vaughan: "Tenderly"
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Mar 27, 2013 • 4 comments

Sarah Lois Vaughan was born on this day in 1924, in my hometown: Newark, NJ. In this clip, taken from a 1958 performance, she sings “Tenderly.”

Thanks must go to Lester Perkins and Jazz on the Tube.

Payday Albums: 3/15/13
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Mar 15, 2013 • 5 comments
Today’s payday. These are the albums I bought.
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The 2013 Pitchfork Music Fest Announces Initial Lineup
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Mar 06, 2013 • 1 comments
While John Atkinson, Jason Victor Serinus, and many more of our friends and colleagues prepare for Axpona in Chicago, where they’ll face what we all hope is this winter’s last frigid gasp, I’ve got my eyes set on this summer’s Pitchfork Music Festival, to be held Friday–Sunday, July 19–21, at Chicago’s Union Park.

I hear it's gonna be hot.

Tickets are on sale now, with single-day passes priced at $50 and three-day passes selling for an attractively discounted $120. But, taking into consideration the outstanding headliners and the well-rounded initial lineup, I suspect most music fans will have a very difficult time attending this Pitchfork Music Fest for just a single day. Three-day passes are practically mandatory.

The initial lineup, highlighted by Bjork, Belle & Sebastian, and R. Kelly, was announced this week:

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Three Days in England with KEF
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Mar 04, 2013 • 4 comments
It was around 9:30am on Monday, November 12, when my plane landed in gray and chilly London. I managed to get through Customs with nothing more than the usual amount of stress and embarrassment, satisfactorily answering all of the agent’s odd questions. That out of the way, I next had to find my host—KEF’s head of brand development, Johan Coorg. Because my cell phone wasn’t working, I was worried that I’d be left stranded at Heathrow, but I recognized Coorg immediately: At the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, he had introduced me to the stunning KEF Muon, and, at KEF’s lavish 50th Anniversary celebration, he had introduced me to a delicious Pimm’s Cup. Now he was standing casually at the Arrivals gate. He wore a dark brown blazer, striped button-down shirt, gold cufflinks, faded blue jeans, shiny leather shoes, and a look of comfort. He was busy pressing buttons on an iPhone.

“Johan,” I said.

“Hello! You made it!”

He led me from the airport, through the parking garage, and to an impressive black Mercedes. After loading our bags into the trunk, I instinctively walked around to the right-hand side of the car and nearly opened the door.

“Wrong side, mate. Unless you want to drive.”

It was a mistake I’d make a few more times before our three-day trip was over.

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Payday Albums: 2/1/13 & 3/1/13
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Mar 01, 2013 • 23 comments
I started this Payday Albums project in January. By February, I’d already fallen behind. So, let’s play catch-up:

Today’s payday. These are the albums I bought.

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Vondelpark: "California Analog Dream"
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Feb 28, 2013 • 8 comments
London-based Vondelpark is Lewis Rainsbury (vocals, production, bass, guitar, keys), Alex Bailey (bass), and Matt Law (keys). Their debut album, Seabed, will be released by R&S Records (In Order to Dance) on April 2nd.
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CocoRosie Announce Tales of a GrassWidow
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Feb 27, 2013 • 4 comments
Tales of a GrassWidow, CocoRosie’s fifth full-length album and first since 2010’s excellent Grey Oceans, is scheduled to be released on May 28th. The album is being self-released, features appearances by Antony Hegarty, and was produced by CocoRosie with extraordinary Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurdsson—so I expect greatness in sound and music.
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More Cassettes
Stephen Mejias
Stephen Mejias • Feb 27, 2013 • 11 comments
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Cassettivity, the new cassette-only distribution site. At the time, Cassettivity had 10 labels on its roster; now it has 14. You can also now sort Cassettivity’s offerings by “ease of listening." I think that’s cool. Currently, Cassettivity’s easiest listening experience can be found in Manchester’s The Potomac (Sixteen Tambourines), while the hardest comes via Yvonne Lovejoy’s Voice Studies 8: This is Yvonne Lovejoy (My Dance the Skull).
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