1999 Deluxe

Mike Oldfield's groundbreaking album Tubular Bells is arguably the finest conglomeration of off-centered instruments concerted together to form a single unique piece. A variety of instruments are combined to create an excitable multitude of rhythms, tones, pitches, and harmonies that all fuse neatly into each other, resulting in an astounding plethora of music. Oldfield plays all the instruments himself, including such oddities as the Farfisa organ, the Lowrey organ, and the flageolet. The familiar eerie opening, made famous by its use in The Exorcist, starts the album off slowly, as each instrument acoustically wriggles its way into the current noise that is heard, until there is a grand unison of eccentric sounds that wildly excites the ears…

New 4 CD boxset of Wilco's seminal Summerteeth, originally released in 1999. Contains the original album - beautifully remastered, a disc chock full of demos, outtakes and alternative versions, and, for me, best of all, 2 CDs containing a 2 hour show from 1999…

After two decades, the Smithereens were no longer in step with the times and they no longer cared – they do what they do because they love it, not because it's fashionable. They were at that point with 1994's A Date With the Smithereens, but that record was hurt by a weird undercurrent of bitterness and Pat DiNizio's songwriting slump…