LATEST ADDITIONS

A <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR20100… article</A> details the lackluster sales of classical music discs. Do you buy classical music?

The Jazz Loft Project is one of the most fascinating documents of multiple obsession—an obsession about an obsessive’s obsession—and it’s worth checking out in multiple media.

And, dang it, just when I thought it was safe to check my e-mail, it turns out that <a href="http://www.myspace.com/ganggangdance">Gang Gang Dance</a>’s long out-of-print 2005 release, the highly acclaimed <i>God’s Money</i>, is available again&#151and on vinyl, hallelujah. A note from <a href="http://www.thesocialregistry.com/index2.html">The Social Registry</a>, another one of my favorite labels:

Wild Nothing is 21-year old Virginian, Jack Tatum. Last year, he released a 7" single on <a href="http://www.capturedtracks.com/index.php">Captured Tracks</a>, another one of those labels that just knows what I like. <i>Gemini</i>, his full-length debut, is scheduled to be released on May 18. You can listen to a few tracks at <a href="http://www.myspace.com/wildnothing">the Wild Nothing Myspace page</a>.

It’s been awhile since I last hooked up with Massive Attack. <i>Heligoland</i> is the unit’s fifth full-length studio release and, with collaborations from Damon Albarn, Hope Sandovol, Tunde Adebimpe, and Martina Topley-Bird, it has to be good. Right?

These are previously unreleased tracks, with a previously unknown fire and happiness. I pried the advance copy from <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/musicroom/robertbaird/">Robert Baird's kung-fu grip</a>, and listened to it on the hi-fi. I don't want to say too much about it because our April issue will include a whole psychedelic feature on the topic, as well as a formal album review, so I'll just say this: I need it.

The February 2010 issue of <i>Stereophile</i> is now on newsstands. What do you think of the cover? I like it more than any cover we’ve done since <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/now_on_newsstands_stereophile… October 2009 issue</a>, which featured the lovely <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/zu_essence_loudspeaker/">Zu Essence</a> speaker. The styling of the current cover may seem a bit soft and feminine (for <i>Stereophile</i>), but I think it’s elegant and graceful, like the speaker it frames. Vienna Acoustics’ Kiss is a beautifully finished three-way design with an integral stand. It uses a 1" silk-dome tweeter coincident with a 7" proprietary Spider-Cone midrange and a 9" Spider-Cone woofer. Wes wanted to make out with it. Can you blame him? He wrote: “The Kiss was exquisitely capable of revealing the emotional core of every type of music I played through it.”