Stephen Mejias

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

It’s been awhile since I last hooked up with Massive Attack. Heligoland 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?

Any album named There Is Love In You is an album for me. Especially when it’s the new one from Four">http://www.myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden">Four Tet, aka Kieran Hebden, 32-year old, post-rock/electronic DJ/musician/wizard.

The February 2010 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. What do you think of the cover? I like it more than any cover we’ve done since the">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/now_on_newsstands_stereophile… October 2009 issue, which featured the lovely Zu">http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/zu_essence_loudspeaker/">Zu Essence speaker. The styling of the current cover may seem a bit soft and feminine (for Stereophile), 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.”

Spending time on the coast, with nothing to impede your view, leaves you feeling more aware of your connection to the planet, this gorgeous blue rock, spinning about in space. One remarkable thing about being so close to the edge of the continent is that you can actually see the curve of the earth. Here I am, committing it to memory.

While Jon was on">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/jons_rainbow/">on his way home, I was back at Lucia">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/lucia_lodge/">Lucia Lodge, working on “Recommended Components.” Earlier in the day, Jon and I had had a big lunch, but I knew that Tom, the lodge manager, would be expecting me for dinner at Lucia’s restaurant. Though I wasn’t particularly hungry, I shut down my laptop, and walked outside. Funny how things work out.

After a storm, the sun would come out and throw an enormous spotlight on the ocean, setting everything ablaze with ever-changing colors and shapes. Words like "glorious," "heavenly," and "miraculous" kept coming to mind.