Pitchfork

This coming Tuesday, April 3, Sanctuary Records Group will beam down three reissue packages bearing the mark of Joe Meek, the 60s songwriter and producer whose work on the Tornado's interplanetary "Telstar" and his own avant-garde LP I Hear a New World helped usher in a brave new world of noise into pop music.

How important was this guy? Put it this way: dude has recording equipment named after him. And the White Stripes are honored to be using one of his synthesizers.

The Joe Meek EP Collection boxes a dozen discs of Meek's production, while Vampires Cowboys Spacemen & Spooks collects 60 wordless Meek-works including a congregation of crazy covers of Meek-era standards like "Wipeout" and "The Can-Can." Meek freaks will also be treated to Joe Meek's Freakbeat: 30 Freakbeat, Mod and R&B Nuggets, the title of which suggests its contents rather well.