Are CDs dead? Not yet. I remain skeptical of DVDs, especially the fledgling DVD-Audio format. Most 5.1 surround setups I've heard are wholly inadequate, using cheap, tiny speakers. And worse, almost everyone I know soon surrenders to the demands of décor, stuffing satellite speakers against the couch or smothering the subwoofer with magazines. But DVDs do enable the presentation of 1970s quadraphonic works like Morton Subotnick's Sidewinder and Until Spring, reissued together on Morton Subotnick Volume 2: Electronic Works (Mode). The classic Sidewinder, accompanied by the colorful, spermatozoan light projections of Tony Martin, plinks, rattles, pants, clanks, and sings with startling rhythmic vibrancy. Essential.
--- Christopher DeLaurenti, THE SCORE-CLASSICAL & JAZZ,