LATEST ADDITIONS

<a href="http://www.stianwesterhus.com/">Stian Westerhus</a> plays guitar in a band called Puma. Having enjoyed Puma’s latest album, <i><a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/puma_half_nelson_courtship/">… Nelson Courtship</a></i>, a powerful assault on the senses, I was anxious to hear Westerhus’s solo work. I expected something brutal&#151even something frightening, something perhaps verging on the unlistenable&#151but Westerhus’s second solo LP, <i>Pitch Black Star Spangled</i> (<a href="http://www.runegrammofon.com/">Rune Grammofon</a> RCD 2099/RLP 3099), is something else, something more.

Despite predictions to the contrary, the Compact Disc isn't dying anytime soon. Too many are in circulation, and until a smooth, friendly skin covers the computer interface, the music-server revolution will remain nascent. We're still in a long, shaky period of transition.

Stereophile's founder, the late J. Gordon Holt, always had a thing for horn loudspeakers, feeling that these archaic beasts offered a "jump factor" that could never be rivaled by conventional, direct-radiating designs. A horn drastically increases the efficiency with which electrical power is converted into acoustic power, which means that for a given sound-pressure level, a smaller amplifier can be used compared with a direct-radiator, and that all distortions, both electrical and mechanical, can theoretically be much lower. Yet outside of a small circle of enthusiasts, horns never got much of a following in high-end audio, and as high amplifier power became plentiful and relatively cheap, horns largely disappeared from domestic audio use (except in Japan).

Sony/Legacy’s 40th anniversary, deluxe reissue of <I>Bitches Brew</I>, Miles Davis’ landmark fusion double-album, is everything that the company’s 50th anniversary reissue of <I>Kind of Blue</I> tried to be but wasn’t: a fitting commemoration, handsomely packaged, with liner notes by a scribe (Greg Tate) who fully grasps the music and its cultural significance, and—a remarkable achievement—a boxed set that warrants tossing the original out.

www.jerrysrecords.com

Berlin was a much smaller market yet there were some interesting music stores, headed by <B> Mr. Dead & Mrs Free</B> which sells only new vinyl. Nearby was <B>Rock Steady Records</B> (pictured above) which had a decent selection of used vintage vinyl. I hear the flea market by the Brandenburg Gate has a number of vinyl dealers but somehow I never made it there.

The Ugly American: stalking the streets of Paris’ Latin Quarter, tongue wagging, wrists dragging along the pavement like Quasimodo, desperately searching out record stores in which to spend my rapidly depreciating (Go!) Euros.