Turkish Delight reunion, 1998

Turkish Delight at the Middle East Upstairs, 1998. Photo + banner: Soledad Stratter

2017 has been a great year for reissues — from Kicking Giant to Ut — but I truly couldn’t contain my excitement when Boston label IHeartNoise decided to reissue Turkish Delight’s 1996 debut, “Tommy Bell,” on cassette.

When I lived in Boston, the Turks were an absolutely un-missable live band. Sometimes bands that are stellar live don’t quite translate on record (and vice versa), but TD captured their particular lightning-in-a-bottle with surprising regularity.