The NOW Yearbook series continues next month with 4CD and 3LP vinyl sets focussed on 1998

COLLECTION OF PREVIOUSLY UNEARTHED OBSCURITIES Formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and vocalist Eric Clapton, keyboardist and singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, the members of Derek and The Dominos had previously played together in Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, during and after Clapton's brief tenure with Blind Faith. Dave Mason supplied additional lead guitar on early studio sessions and played at their first live gig. Another participant at their first session as a band was George Harrison, the recording for whose All Things Must Pass marked the formation of Derek and the Dominos. Releasing only one studio album during their short time together as a group, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was produced by Tom Dowd and featured extensive contributions on lead and slide guitar from Duane Allman. A double album, Layla did not immediately enjoy strong sales or receive widespread radio play, but went on to earn huge critical acclaim. Although released in 1970 it was not until March 72 that the album's title track Layla made the top ten in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The album is often considered to be the defining achievement of Clapton's career. While there have been a number of rare studio jams and live tracks released since, on reissues and other collector s items, the tracks now featured on this rarities collection remain previously unreleased. Including as it does rare outtakes from the sessions for the Dominos aborted second album, live obscurities and a range of other essential but not previously available cuts, this selection will prove a delight for Clapton/Dominos/Allman fans, acting as it will as a compilation to fill those annoying gaps in even the most complete collections.

Iconic British rock band The Who gracing us with their collection of rarities which put many a regular studio album to shame. Fans of the band's classic 1974 hard rock period who only own the proper albums really need to get 'Odds & Sods' to complete their collection. It's considered by many, the lost scrolls wrapped around the Golden Chalice. It is a fascinating mix of lost treasures, exciting misfires, and just plain weird Who artifacts. For instance their very first single, "I'm the Face," recorded in 1964 when the group were known as the High Numbers.

The Bolognese composer Giuseppe A. V. Aldrovandini is little known today, not least because of his short life, but he was a prominent figure in his time. Aldrovandini's trio sonatas have a simple form, strongly rooted in the formal structure of the church sonata, and a certain naivety in the solutions of the development of the chosen themes. These delightful works, which are the instrumental counterpart of Aldrovandini's lyrical production, are recorded here as a world premiere. Lorenzo Colitto, who leads the ensemble, enjoys a worldwide reputation as one of the best performers of early and baroque music and cooperates here with leading soloists such as Lisa Kawata Ferguson, Marcello Scandelli, João Janeiro, Chiara Tiboni and Francesco Romano.

Among the thirteen oratorios by Giovanni Paolo Colonna, more than half are connected, by their origin or at least by tradition, to the court of Francesco II d’Este. Although in the early modern period the sacredness of monarchy was indisputable, we cannot take it for granted that an oratorio – unlike an opera, as was usually the case – was offered to a monarch in order to praise him unconditionally.

An unrivalled collection of lesser-known 20th-century piano concertos in both Romantic and modern styles, in definitive recordings by Dutch artists. This survey of Dutch piano concertos actually begins in 1886, with the A minor work by Carl Smulders (1863-1934). Smulders sidesteps convention by opening not with a grand gesture but a slow, expectant build-up, breaking the template for A minor piano concertos established first by Schumann and then Grieg. The piano writing itself has a lyrically Griegian flavour, however, which Ivo Janssen brings out in this 1994 recording.

The first Roxy album to break the US Top 40 demonstrated that, four records in, the band were every bit as hungry, audacious and pioneering as on their debut two years earlier. Opening with the urgent, propulsive ‘The Thrill Of It All’, ‘Country Life’ effortlessly embraces avant-garde song structures, touching ballads, English nostalgia, visceral hard rock, European influences and even medieval Christian references without skipping a beat. The resulting album is yet another immensely satisfying musical experience. Compared to their peers, it’s almost frightening what sounds Roxy Music could perfect and make their own. The album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent.

Here you have a collection of great music by many of the finest singers ever to inhabit the world . Despite the album’s title, every song aboard is pure blues, but each and every one of the singers assembled here had the ability to turn even the cheesiest of ballads into something that dripped blues whenever they chose to heap up the required, highly personalised, emotion.

With two studio recordings under their belt (the 1972 Caricatures and the 1973 Le Cimetière des Arlequins), Ange struck artistic gold with Au-Delà du Délire. All the elements came together this time, producing France's best symphonic progressive rock album of the 1970s. Christian Decamps' medieval imagery (echoed in the music by occasional minstrel-type folk song structures) is assisted this time around by Biblical themes, something noticeable in the song titles. His voice is not the only center of attention anymore, as instrumental passages take more room and arrangements become more intricate. "Exode" actually takes off when the verse is over and the guitar and Mellotron start working on an instrumental crescendo.

Steppenwolf 7 is the fifth studio album by Canadian-American rock band Steppenwolf. The album was released in November 1970, by Dunhill Records. It is the first Steppenwolf album with new bass player George Biondo. The album’s numerical title reflects the fact that it was the band’s seventh album release for ABC/Dunhill records (including the four preceding studio LP’s, as well as two live albums). While the album featured Steppenwolf's trademark rock and roll sounds, none of the songs were able to make the top 40. The album featured a cover of Hoyt Axton's "Snowblind Friend", their second cover of one of his antidrug songs (the first being "The Pusher").

Three Dog Night garnered three hits off of their 1974 release, Hard Labor, with material from John Hiatt, Allen Toussaint, and David Courtney/Leo Sayer. This time around they obtain their 21st and final Top 40 entry with a Dave Loggins song, "'Till the World Ends," and it is no "Pieces of April," the lovely composition from the same songwriter which landed in the Top 20 for the group two-and-a-half-years earlier. The problem with the song is the same dilemma faced by the album, Coming Down Your Way, the band seeking another genre to conquer while keeping their eye off of the precise and major Top 40 activity which was their bread and butter. Keyboard player for the Blues Image, Frank "Skip" Konte, joins Jimmy Greenspoon on the ivories with the Monkees/Barry Manilow bassist Dennis Belfield onboard as well.

Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suites are the least known of his orchestral works. Their rediscovery provides an insight into the composer’s stylistic resources, as he delves into the possibilities offered by a free form. From fugues to ancient dances, not to mention the use of Russian folk themes, Tchaikovsky’s stamp is always recognizable due to its particularity, diversity and his inexhaustible orchestral inventiveness.

In Concert was the most expansive live recording ever issued by Motown Records. What's more, it all works in terms of being an honest representation of this band - not that they compromised much in the studio, where their rendition of "Get Ready" ran 20 minutes, but playing to an audience was what they'd been about from the start, and everything here resonates with the joy of that process. And in addition to capturing the band in top form, the recording itself provided a beautifully vivid sound picture, every instrument and voice captured spot-on, all the more amazing considering the size of this band and the complexities of their sound - flutes, guitars (acoustic and electric), keyboards, saxes, percussion, and more are all here in close detail, but nothing more solid in the mix than John Persh's lead bass work in the middle section of the 23-and-a-half-minute "Get Ready"…

Flamboyant British icons of the 1970s whose nasty fusion of heavy metal, glam rock, and sneering cynicism influenced many punk bands. Collection includes: 'Mott The Hoople' (1969); 'Mad Shadows' (1970); 'Wildlife' (1971); 'Brain Capers' (1971); 'All The Young Dudes' (1972); 'Mott' (1973); 'The Hoople' (1974); 'Live' (1974) 30th Anniversary Edition 2004; 'Rock And Roll Queen' (1974); 'Drive On' (1975); 'Greatest Hits' (1976); 'Two Miles From Heaven' (1980); 'The Ballad Of Mott: A Retrospective' (1993); 'Fairfield Halls, Live 1970' (2007).

Lauded experimental death metal band Dååth has emerged from its 13-year hiatus with a new album, The Deceivers. Band founder/guitarist Eyal Levi has overseen an overhaul of the lineup, though importantly Dååth still features force-of-nature vocalist Sean Zatorsky, who has fronted the band since 2007. “Now Dååth is more orchestrated, more over the top. We have more melodies and they're beautiful,” Levi says. That’s what The Deceivers is: Monstrously heavy but beautifully orchestrated, blessed with melodies that will haunt anybody fortunate enough to hear it. The nine tracks were produced by Levi, with Andrew Wade doing vocal production, John Douglass engineering, Jens Bogren mixing, and Tony Lindgren mastering.