Stephen Mejias

Effi Briest sort of reminds me of Gang Gang Dance. And I like that. Check out this dizzying video for "Mirror Rim."

Hey. If you like Cold Cave, I think you'll like Bal Pare. It's pretty safe to judge a 7" by its cover, which is what I did when I saw this one winking at me from the racks at Other Music. How could it not be good, all masked and silvery and naked like that?

Now look at this and drool. You want it, you need it, you gotta have it: Sub Pop's deluxe edition of Nirvana's Bleach, available November">http://www.subpop.com/releases/nirvana/full_lengths/bleach_deluxe_editi… 3.

Look at this thing. It’s a Verity">http://www.verityaudio.com/en/index.php/products/finn">Verity Audio Finn in seductive Norwegian Birch. Don’t you want to just squeeze it? Don’t you want to just bring it home with you?

The November 2009 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. On the cover, you’ll see a close-up of the Aerial Acoustics Model 20T V2 loudspeaker, which John Atkinson praised for its silky treble and weighty, well-defined bass. An interview with Aerial’s designer, Michael Kelly, appears herehttp://www.stereophile.com/interviews/467/index.html">here;, while Michael Fremer’s review of the original 20T can be found herehttp://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/404aerial/index.html">here…;.

Espers (from left): Meg Baird, Helena Espvall, Greg Weeks, Brooke Sietinsons. Photo: Daniel Coston.

Right from the start&#151from the very first musical moment&#151it’s the gorgeous, spacious sound we’ve grown to love from Espers’ Greg Weeks and his Hexham">http://www.myspace.com/hexhamhead">Hexham Head Studio in Philadelphia. While III’s rather straightforward instrumentation (churning, scintillating acoustic guitars, appropriately warm, round bass, and steady, impactful drums) marks a subtle departure from the doumbek and dholak of IIhttp://blog.stereophile.com/musicroom/facethemusic/042706espers/">II;, the quality of sound is no less complex or stirring. We hear the sounds of wood and brass meeting with flesh and skin, of bow hair as it courses along cello strings, of cello moan and sigh, of the most delicious fuzzed-out guitar placed in realistic, three-dimensional space&#151all with such truth, such blood, such respect of momentum and flow, that we are fooled into thinking that the very space around us is, in fact, growing, exhaling, beating.