THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS Vinyl & CDs

Review: In hindsight, the summer of 1997 saw the release of some genuinely brilliant and ground-breaking dance albums - not least Chemical Brothers' second studio set, Dig Your Own Hole. As this expanded 25th anniversary edition proves, the album was the musical high point of the often painfully shallow big beat movement - a thrill-a-minute ride that races between funk-fuelled, break-heavy hits ('Block-Rockin' Beats'), rock-tinged heaviness (the title track), fuzz-fuelled post-techno hedonism (''Electrobank'), La Funk Mob-influenced trip-hop ('Pikup'), heady ambience ('Lost in the K-Hole') and riffs on the Beatles' 'Tomorrow Never Knows' ('Setting Sun' and the incredible 'My Private Psychedelic Reel'). CD two will delight fans, featuring as it does a quintet of previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions, with the opioid pulse of 'Cylinders' and the slamming 'It Doesn't Matter (alternate mix)' standing out.