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Transversales Disques proudly presents PANORAMA Vol. 2, another deep dive into rare French soundtracks, Library music, and instrumental oddities that have largely remained untouched by reissues or compilations.

This curated selection features 11 forgotten gems recorded between 1968 and 1980. It showcases the brilliance of celebrated maestros like Francis Lai, Karl-Heinz Schäfer, Eric Demarsan and Jean-Claude Petit, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with unsung composers such as Oswald d'Andréa, and Jean-Louis Bucchi.

Embark on a cinematic journey brimming with moody string arrangements, funky flanged drums, signature French basslines, and deeply dramatic atmospheres.

Deluxe Tip-On jacket LP with printed innersleeves
Including exclusive and extensive liner notes.
Vinyl Only / No Digital

Funny How? is Christophe Chassol’s fifth album.



While it builds directly on his work with the “Ultrascores,” it also marks a turning point: a more contemporary sound, broader songwriting, and more explicitly political and social themes make Funny How? his most accomplished album to date. It’s also his most accessible: inspired by American stand-up comedy, Funny How? sounds like a joyful mix of all the music that inspires the artist: soul, jazz, rap, musicals… Thus, throughout the album, major stand-up figures like Dave Chappelle, Marina Franklin, Dulcé Sloan, and Tiny Thickemz appear alongside emerging comedians filmed in more intimate comedy clubs, composing a moving portrait of the new American scene.

Drawing on archival footage and sequences shot for the project in New York and Chicago, and true to his principle of harmonizing reality, he reveals its hidden notes, replaying and developing them throughout a fascinating process. The result is a major work, a choral, political, and deeply musical narrative. In concert, the work unfolds majestically through a hybrid performance where music and images respond to and converse with one another.



The premiere of Funny How? on April 17 and 18, 2026, at the Cité de la Musique in Paris is already sold out. The album is scheduled for release on May 22, 2026.

Time To Get On Board A New Black Universal Express.

With each new recording Anthony Joseph presents an imaginative, personal vision of contemporary black culture, and The Ark is yet another compelling album by the award-winning Trinidadian poet and musician. This second part of a sequence of two albums launched with last year’s Rowing Up River To Get Our Names Back, finds Joseph giving full vent to his desire to explore many thought-provoking themes. However, there is a specific thread running through the glorious offering of sounds.

”I was especially interested in the idea of using Afrofuturism as a means of using the future in order to correct the wrongs of the past,” explains Joseph. “And so a lot of lyrics reimage or imagine an alternate black history. At the same time there are elements of autobiography.” The aforesaid cultural phenomenon, a view of the black experience through the prism of science fiction and ancient Egypt and Africa, as mapped out by visionaries from music and literature such as Sun Ra, Parliament-Funkadelic and Octavia E. Butler, has previously inspired Joseph. His 2006 novel The African Origins Of UFOs was a multi-hued work, and the new music shows how Joseph

has, much like all significant artists, gone on to broaden his conceptual palette, creating beguiling new stories and images set to startling rhythms and tones. Tracks such as ‘James’, with its taut, crisp bass and dubbed-up brass, and ‘Transposition Of Space (Glissant)’, a potent evocation of the influential Martiniquan theorist set in a haze of jazz guitar and ambient synthesizers, are marvels of text-sound painting.

As for ‘Baron Samedi’, shaped by a languid, almost wounded guitar line and slow rise of horns that frame Joseph’s journey to the ‘mountain of fire, almost touching the sky’ it is an epic blend of commanding vocal delivery and dramatic sonic tapestry.

Joseph led the Spasm band in the early 2000s and recorded well-received albums such as Bird Head Son and Time, in which songs were largely based on spirituals or chants enhanced by improvisation. But his musical curiosity has naturally led to collaborations, and the new work is produced by Dave Okumu, the prodigiously talented guitarist-vocalist-composer known as the leader of Mercury Music Prize-nominated The Invisible, and who was also a member of the seminal band Jade Fox.

Having first performed together at a show curated by influential saxophonist-flautist Shabaka Hutchings at the storied Total Refreshment Centre In London during lockdown, Joseph and Okumu struck up a rapport that further developed when the former guested on he latter’s album. With the connection made Joseph knew Okumu was the ideal producer for this latest project, which has a freewheeling, almost black psychedelic thing. After sifting through demos and loops the guitarist made on pro-tools the poet started to live with the music. Many months later words began to take shape. Joseph then went into the studio with Okumu’s band and set about creating a magnum opus. Boasting a stellar cast such as vocalist Eska Mtungwazi, trumpeter Byron Wallen and keyboardist Nick Ramm, The Ark is a highly intricate musical mosaic framed by simmering funk grooves, wily jazz improvisation and haunting dub effects. Through the use of many genres the music has simply become its own genre.

The Ark can be perceived as a vessel or means of transport to new worlds, along the lines of Sun Ra’s Ark or Funkadelic’s Mothership, and the material it contains is a unique blend of who Anthony Joseph is and how he sees the world and society in these stimulating, challenging times. “It balances the personal with the universal in a much more vulnerable, accessible way than on previous albums,” Joseph explains.

“It has become less about a personal experience and more about a collective, communal experience in which the artist is conduit, messenger, urban griot.”

Cheeba’s Reggae Sound Boys are unloading the bass bins again with another two slices of funky reggae beats for the dance, in their second release on ECR

VOICE OF THE VOODOO - Emerges through a haze of psychedelic dub sounds into a big break beat laden skank. Organ riffs are chopped up over the funky reggae guitar rhythm and the big bass grooves. With vocals and JA deejay scats coming in and out of the mix. This has been waiting for release for a while and the dubplate has been hammered all round the country the last 12 months or more !

SAY IT LOUD - The flip side is equally club friendly with a hard hitting combination of beats and rhythms - coming on like Jah Shaka playing a soundclash at Wigan Casino - when it explodes into a big soul-stomping piano loop and heavy Hammond flourishes. The vocals riff on the JB “Black & Proud” theme, with a dancehall flava to create a party vibe just right for the summer BBQs

Dead Calm is a band from Liam McCay... a young, prolific Irish musician from County Donegal, known for creating music under numerous aliases, most notably Sign Crushes Motorist, Dead Calm, and Take Care, exploring genres like slowcore and indie rock with poignant, introspective, and often melancholic themes, gaining significant online traction while maintaining a low-key, hobbyist approach to his rapidly growing career. He began with the fiddle, pivoted to guitar during the pandemic, and has since released extensive work, even turning down record deals to keep his creative process personal.

Dead Calm is a band from Liam McCay... a young, prolific Irish musician from County Donegal, known for creating music under numerous aliases, most notably Sign Crushes Motorist, Dead Calm, and Take Care, exploring genres like slowcore and indie rock with poignant, introspective, and often melancholic themes, gaining significant online traction while maintaining a low-key, hobbyist approach to his rapidly growing career. He began with the fiddle, pivoted to guitar during the pandemic, and has since released extensive work, even turning down record deals to keep his creative process personal.

We are pleased to announce the first FEX live album, Don't Look Back. The release features selected recordings from two concerts in Paderborn and Uelzen, both captured in 1985. All tracks on the album are previously unissued, including entirely unheard songs such as It's a Hard Life, Just Get Back, Legend, and Waiting Song, alongside a previously unreleased version of Subways of Your Mind, widely known as "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet."
One of the most striking aspects of the album is the remarkable sound quality of the live recordings, as well as the strength of the performances themselves - particularly given that FEX were still considered a newcomer band at the time. The four-piece lineup consisted of singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter Ture Rückwardt, Michael Hädrich on keyboards and occasional second guitar, Norbert Ziermann on bass, and Hans-Reimer Sievers on drums. In 1985, the band was preparing for broader exposure through a nationwide tour organized by the small promotion company HBM-Musikbüro.
The album opens with the psychedelic Skyscraper, a track Rückwardt reportedly regarded as a personal favorite to perform. Hädrich contributes dynamic synthesizer layers, while Ziermann underpins the track with a distinctive slap bass groove. This is followed by the energetic rock number It's a Hard Life, which once again demonstrates that the band possessed multiple songs capable of matching the impact of their best known track Subways of Your Mind.
After this energetic opening, the album shifts into a more restrained mood with the synth-pop ballad I Got My Eyes On You. It is followed by Strange Feeling, presented here in a particularly compelling live version that arguably surpasses the previously released studio demo featured on the Skyscraper LP, with Rückwardt delivering one of his most expressive vocal performances. On Goldrush, another fan favorite, it is Hädrich's DX7 synthesizer work that stands out.
Don't Look Back continues to flow seamlessly, moving between styles such as new wave, synth pop, and a blues-influenced form of classic rock. On It's Good To Know, a song addressing the theme of stardom, the band returns to a heavier rock sound. In contrast, the synth-driven Just Get Back reflects on the conflict in Northern Ireland, then ongoing at the time. Lines such as "It's the money, it's the money why they come along" are directed at mercenary soldiers, while "even Sunday's a killing time" directly references Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2.
Previously known songs such as Dirty Slapstick and Heart in Danger lead into We Don't Want It No More, perhaps the band's most striking pop ballad. It is easy to imagine that the track had the potential to achieve radio success in the 1980s. The following piece, the epic Legend, explores themes of loneliness and love simultaneously. With poetic and abstract lines such as "some isolate in the falling rain" and "that's why I count all the reasons they call out for living, sadness is falling inside," it builds an almost eerie atmosphere.
One of the final highlights of the album is Subways of Your Mind, recorded in Uelzen. In this version, Rückwardt's vocal performance is even more on point than on the previously issued recording from Paderborn. Another notable moment is the driving, 1970s-inspired rock 'n' roll track Waiting Song. Both the composition and its live performance carry an energy that could easily stand alongside the repertoire of bands such as AC/DC. It was usually the track that FEX ended their concerts with, calling out each band member at the end of the song.
This leads to a broader reflection: it is striking that FEX did not achieve a wider breakthrough at the time. The performances captured here suggest a band capable of delivering consistently, song by song, note by note. It is not difficult to imagine FEX performing in large venues and engaging sizeable audiences. In reality, however, most performances in 1985 took place in front of relatively small crowds. The recordings featured on this album originate from the Roxy club in Paderborn and a small, unknown venue in Uelzen, likely in front of fewer than fifty attendees.
An essential figure behind these recordings is the engineer known only under his nickname Hase (German for "rabbit"), who was responsible for capturing not only these concerts but many other surviving FEX recordings. Bringing his own mixing desk to performances, he developed a deep familiarity with the band's material and was able to shape the live sound with precision, including the timely use of vocal effects. The original recordings existed only on cassette and required careful and extensive restoration work. Zoey Cairs was finally responsible for bringing them to their present quality.
This album marks the beginning of the Live Waves series, following the rediscovery of additional recordings that have gained international attention since November 2024, when they surfaced through what has been described as the largest "lost wave" music search to date. The title of this first live LP Don't Look Back carries a certain paradox. While the album invites listeners to revisit recordings from forty years ago, FEX themselves were always oriented toward the future. In that spirit, further releases of brand new material are already planned.
The cover artwork is once again based on an image by Magnussen from the Kiel archive, depicting the Prinz-Heinrich-Brücke. The bridge, once located in the northern part of the city, no longer exists. As a symbol, however, it remains fitting: a bridge stands for movement and connection - qualities that FEX sought to embody on tour, bringing their music to different places and audiences.

"Imagine a classic singer/songwriter record loaded with the intimacy and grit reminiscent of Alex Chilton or Nikki Sudden." Shindig

Los Angeles singer-songwriter Tracy Bryant returns with his new album The Well, which is his first release since 2019’s critically acclaimed Hush. His fourth solo album, The Well marks a striking new chapter, trading his signature guitar-driven sound for piano-led songwriting that took root during the pandemic. The album was born out of one of the most turbulent periods of his life, written in the wake of his father’s sudden passing and birth of his first child. It was produced by longtime friend and compatriot Joo-Joo Ashworth at Studio 22 in Cypress Park, CA, and mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters. The nine songs are filled with raw emotion and driving motorik rhythm, telling tales of loss and love, relationships beginning and ending.
 
When the pandemic upended Bryant’s promotion for Hush and brought his 2019 European tour to a halt, he found himself at home rediscovering his musical roots at the piano, listening to Vince Guaraldi and Arthur Russell to take inspiration for the song structures. Without a band around, Bryant used the instrument to create both rhythm and melody, which resulted in a repetitive and precise backbeat, which was elevated when he began working with drummer Carmeron Gartung to rehearse the new songs. This different approach would define the style of The Well, creating an amalgamation of sounds with classic songwriting structures blended with post-punk, 90s indie, krautrock and psychedelia.
 
To produce the record, Bryant turned to Joo-Joo Ashworth, who share a friendship stretching back to 2011 (when Joo Joo was only 18) when both of their bands, Corners and Froth, were at the forefront of the bourgeoning Los Angeles/Echo Park music scene of the time and embarked on their first national tours together. Ashworth, who has since become one of underground music’s most respected producers, recorded the album throughout 2024/2025 on half inch tape at Studio 22 in Cypress Park, California, giving The Well a warm, considered sound that matches the weight of its subject matter.
 
The album’s emotional core was forged by two significant life events arriving in close succession. In January 2022, Bryant’s father passed away unexpectedly at the age of 67. Just three months later, Tracy and his wife welcomed their first child. The Well is a direct result of those experiences, a songwriter processing grief and joy, endings and beginnings in real time. 
 
The nine songs take the listener on a meticulously crafted journey through the nooks and crannies of Bryant’s mind. Spanning 37 minutes, the album is an exploration of classic songwriting elements moving fluidly between driving beat punk, like “Weight” and “Widow”, and more melancholic tracks like “Halfway” and “Danny”. Album opener “Cold Floor” sets the tone immediately, Bryant’s lyrics confronting the day of his father’s death with unflinching directness – the breezy California piano sound is in direct contrast to the heavy theme. The Bowie-esque title track is perhaps the album’s most expansive moment – a fully realised epic composed with a dynamic flare. 
 
 The Well feels like an arrival. Dramatic and expansive, it is a true, visceral reflection of the life changing events that altered the course of Bryant’s life. Fans will be surprised by the heavy focus on piano but they will welcome the change as a bold turning point for an artist who has lived long enough to know exactly what he wants to say. 

Some previous press:

"feels like a slice of California, down to its ringing post-surf guitars and bright melodies, but cross-cut with a folk sensibility more aligned to the work of Elliot Smith or, on occasions, Conor Oberst." Uncut - lead album review

"…sees the Los Angeles rocker confront both the finer and uglier aspects of love and life, combining classic rock with psychedelic tinges and catchy melodies." Evening Standard 4*s

Originally released in 2014 on cassette and digital only, Till Human Voices Wake Us was the first album by the Iranian artist on Umor Rex. It became a key work in our catalog, and now, 12 years later, it is available on vinyl for the first time. This is the first in a series of four special, limited reissues to be released in 2026 to mark the 20th anniversary of Umor Rex.

Till Human Voices Wake Us comprises ten tracks with a clear and carefully structured script, based on poems by T.S. Eliot, highlighting Siavash Amini’s work as a composer for theater, film, and art exhibitions. His music deliberately leans toward ambient expressions, at times recalling Morricone’s Western film scores. The interplay between synthetic and digital elements, together with multilayered, soul-healing electric guitar passages, creates an opulent sonic texture that moves between dramatic and melancholic moments with a finely constructed, fluid dynamism.

There is an emotional depth in each piece, guided by tonal variations and shifting textures that turn the music into a mental journey, with landscapes, a sense of cold resolution, and the quiet inevitability of an ending. Till Human Voices Wake Us was Amini’s first album on a non-Iranian label. Following this release, he has also published work, in addition to Umor Rex, on labels such as Room40, Hallow Ground, and Opal Tapes, among others, and is now considered one of the most prominent figures in Iran’s experimental music scene.

All music by Siavash Amini. Original master by Nicholas Szczepanik. Remastered for vinyl by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Artwork by Daniel Castrejón.

"Already established within Iran’s music scene, Siavash Amini has crafted a powerful signature sound that blends meticulously assembled ambient synthesis with languid electric guitar melodies, recalling Lanois and Eno’s classic Apollo." — THE QUIETUS (Tristan Bath)

Zeitgleich mit der Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft 2026 veröffentlicht das Label 4AD eine besondere Double-A-Side-7-Inch-Single mit zwei alternativen WM-Hymnen von Air Miami und Colourbox. Die Single trägt den Titel "Complicated Opposition". Das Artwork stammt von Chris Bigg und verwendet Fotografien von The Douglas Brothers. Der Song "World Cup Fever" von Air Miami erschien ursprünglich 1995 auf dem Album "Me. Me. Me.". Er entstand im Sommer 1994, als Mark Robinson mit Blast Off Country Style auf Tour war - während die USA erstmals Gastgeber der Fußball-WM waren. Robinson erinnerte sich, dass er sich damals Fußballschuhe und grellorange Trainer-Shorts aus einem Second-Hand-Laden kaufte. Seine Bandkollegen nannten ihn daraufhin "Coach". Bei einem Konzert in North Carolina meinte Esther Oliver zu ihm: "Du hast World-Cup-Fieber" - eine Bemerkung, die schließlich den Song inspirierte. Der Titel wurde von Pete Weiss neu gemastert. Der zweite Track, "The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme", erschien ursprünglich 1986 als Bonustrack einer CD-Neuauflage des Debüt-Mini-Albums von Colourbox. Das Stück war als Fußball-Thema gedacht und wurde sogar für die BBC-Sendung während der 1986 FIFA World Cup in Betracht gezogen, jedoch letztlich nicht verwendet. Das Remaster stammt von Kevin Vanbergen. Auch darüber hinaus gibt es Verbindungen zwischen 4AD und Fußball. Designer Vaughan Oliver war leidenschaftlicher Fußballfan und gestaltete unter anderem Artwork für Sunderland AFC. Die Indie-Supergroup The Lillies veröffentlichte zudem den Song "And David Seaman Will Be Very Disappointed About That...", der 1991 einem Fanzine von Tottenham Hotspur beilag.

Inspired by a look back to futuristic tracks from the early 90's to the 50's in the US and the impact now of artificial intelligence on life today is the theme of this ep.

tags: electronic. techno and variations

Android Blaze : Looking at a future apocalypse. Referencing George
Orwell's 1984 and Blade Runner.
pre-mastered by DJ Sotofett. Mixing by Robotron . Mastered by
Manmade Mastering.

Kids and Batteries :Virtual kids searching for their souls online.

Real Synthetic Life : Referencing the 50's science fiction movie Forbidden
Planet.

Red Vinyl

Linea Aspera return with their second full-length LP, combining analogue production techniques with evocative emotional authenticity that ties themes of inherently human experience to cosmological concepts of physics and astronomy.

2 x LP 180g Vinyl in Picture Sleeve

D Train delivered a run of early-’80s hits, earning multiple chart successes and becoming a staple in iconic clubs like New York’s Paradise Garage. Their influence has endured far beyond the original fanbase—from being sampled by The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997 to appearing in Grand Theft Auto V in 2013. The Best Of The 12" Mixes, which compiles extended 12-inch versions and remixes by legendary producers Paul Hardcastle and François K, was first released on CD in 1992. Now, for the first time and exclusively for Record Store Day, Unidisc presents the collection as a double LP pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl.

A cult electronic artefact from 1999 resurfaces here as DHS's 'From Outer Space' lands once more on wax. Ben Stokes' project has always thrived on the fringes of breakbeat and acid experimentation. Stretching across 12 minutes, 'From Outerspace' is a patiently unfurling trip built on hypnotic loops, eerie atmospherics and a restless low end that never quite settles. Fairground oddities, UFO signals and disembodied shrieks drift in and out of focus to tease the floor before locking into a rugged, heads-down stride. On the flip, 'DHS Theme 2014' and 'Voodoo Breaks' extend the sampledelic ritual with squelch and understated menace.

Erweiterte Deluxe-Jubiläumsausgabe von "The Fallen By Watch Bird", das neben dem Originalalbum auch das Kompendium "The Watchbird Alluminate" enthält, alternative Versionen und Neuinterpretationen von u.a. Demdike Stare, The Focus Group, Anworth Kirk und Emma Tricca. Seit der ursprünglichen Veröffentlichung vor 15 Jahren hat sich Jane Weaver zu einer der markantesten und experimentierfreudigsten Stimmen aus UK entwickelt und eine Reihe von gefeierten Alben veröffentlicht, darunter "The Silver Globe", "Modern Kosmology", "Flock" und "Love In Constant Spectacle". Es ist ein psychedelischer Femme-Folk-Rock-Teppich, der Einflüsse aus dem osteuropäischen Kinderkino, deutschen Kunstmärchen, der TV-Musik der 70er Jahre und elektronischen Soundtracks der 80er Jahre aufgreift. Dieses konzeptionelle Album, das von Synths und Mystik durchdrungen ist, verwebt Bilder von abwesenden Seeleuten, Telekinese, Tierbotschaften und weißer Magie mit heidnischen Themen wie Tod und Wiedergeburt. Ein prägendes Meisterwerk aus ihrer ständig wachsenden Diskografie, das ihre Reise von ihren folkloristischen und poporientierten Anfängen bis hin zu den psychedelischen Synth-Pop-Experimenten von heute dokumentiert. Das Album umfasst sieben Kapitel und enthält Beiträge von Septième Soeur Wendy Flower vom Folk-Pop-Duo Wendy & Bonnie, das 1969 das Album Genesis veröffentlichte, Lisa Jen, der walisischen Sängerin auf Gruff Rhys' Candylion, der verstorbenen amerikanischen Folk-Pop-Sängerin Susan Christie und dem bosnischen Folk-Musiker und Violinisten Behar. Als Extra setzt "The Watchbird Alluminate" die Reise fort, indem es in Drone, Psychedelia, Folk und weitere Klanglandschaften eintaucht. Einzel-CD oder limitierte 2LP-Edition in Marineblau und Cremefarbenem Vinyl, Gatefold-Sleeve + Obi-Streifen & DL-Karte.

PARK PLACE With PAUL TILLMAN SMITH

MAGAZINE GIRL b/w SIMPLE LOVE LIFE
IZIPHO SOUL in association with CHUMP CHANGE RECORDS is thrilled to announce an intriguing new 7”.

From the pen and production prowess of Oakland’s unsung hero Paul Tillman Smith, ably assisted by co-producers Nelson Braxton and Levi Seacer Jr. we present the following musical gems:-
‘Magazine Girl’ featuring the striking vocals of Donnie Williams singing a tale of fantasy. Delightfully crafted for this record, ‘The Catwalk Mix’ by Philip Ward.
‘Simple Love Life’ - modern-day soulful boogie of the highest order, featuring the sensual voice of Terrill Carter.
Also included is Paul Tillman Smith’s ‘Country Rap Epilogue’ cut as a separate track to offer both a humorous twist and context to the song.

Dual label design to reflect the theme’s of each side.

WRWTFWW Records is proud to present THE GENTLE PEOPLE - Soundtracks for Living (Expanded Edition), ?the ultimate Lounge/Chill Out classic from 1997, reborn! Available as a limited edition white vinyl 3LP in heavyweight 3-panel gatefold sleeve.

When The Gentle People first glided into the mid-90s on clouds of strings, sugar and sine waves, they sounded like visitors from another, more glamorous planet. Signed to Richard D. James and Grant Wilson-Claridge's cult label Rephlex, this multinational "E-Z-Core" lounge unit took the aesthetics of 50s/60s easy listening and exotica and gently smuggled them into 1990s club culture.

Soundtracks for Living was their defining statement: an album that "takes the lounge scene and runs away with it entirely… blissful and heavenly," as one contemporary review put it. Imagine KLF's Chill Out or Space growing up on French 60/70s pop, bossa nova, soundtracks, vocal harmony groups, library music and easy listening then slipping out for a late-night date with dub, ambient techno and bubble-bath pop. That's Soundtracks for Living: a record that can score cocktail hour, 4am taxi rides, and daydreams in headphones with the same effortless grace.

The Gentle People - Dougee Dimensional, Laurie LeMans, Valentine Carnelian and Honeymink - began in early-90s Brixton, throwing dress-up theme parties before taking their audio-visual universe into the studio. For them, music was "a way of life": soothing to the ear, rich in pop hooks, and pitched somewhere between the playfully idiotic and the hyper-intelligent. Their debut on Rephlex was the single "Journey", later blessed with a shimmering Aphex Twin remix that pushed their sugar-coated sound even further into outer space.

This Expanded Edition of Soundtracks for Living finally gives this glambient lounge-pop milestone the treatment it has always deserved. Spread lovingly across 3LP, it features new mastering from the original sources, allowing every harp glissando, string swell and analog squiggle to float in high-fidelity widescreen. The core album is complemented by a bonus 12" of unreleased and rare material, offering a deeper dive into the Gentle world: alternate takes, lost interludes, and secret soundtrack cues for lives not yet lived.

Crucially, "Journey" appears here in its original version, Gentle Instrumental and the cult Aphex Twin remix, reuniting band and labelmate in one place and underlining the quietly radical nature of the project: this was lounge music that could sit next to braindance, acid and IDM and still steal the scene.

Pressed on limited edition white vinyl, Soundtrack for Living (Expanded Edition) invites long-time fans and new listeners alike to step back into The Gentle People's universe - a place of fondue parties, bubble chairs, star-lit elevators and endlessly rewinding sunsets, where "the pathway to the stars" is never quite out of reach.

In an era that often reduces the 90s to big-room bangers and grunge guitars, Soundtracks for Living remains a quietly subversive reminder that the decade was also about imagination, camp, softness and utopian possibility. As later writers have noted, The Gentle People weren't just a curiosity on a weird label; they became unlikely icons of a whole loungecore moment, gracing TV, compilations and magazine spreads, and proving that tenderness could be as futuristic as any drum machine.
In conjunction with this release, WRWTFWW has also unearthed The Gentle People's Peel Sessions, a 4-track EP from their 1997 BBC on-air performance, available on vinyl for the first time ever !

Death Is Not The End collaborate with Uzbek label Maqom Soul to deliver an LP counterpart to last year's mixtape of the same title, compiling specially picked & fully licensed individual belters from the ex-soviet studios of Central Asian republics between 1978 and 1989 - incl. Uzbek, Tajik, Kurdish & Uyghur artists pulling traditional folk motifs together with pop & rock and psych elements.

"These recordings do not form a smooth or coherent history. They feel more like a sequence of discoveries made at different moments and in different circumstances. Songs and instrumental pieces that once lived inside specific contexts radio broadcasts, philharmonic programs, touring routes now sit side by side, revealing hidden connections as well as clear fractures between them.

Nasiba Abdullaeva appears here as a voice from the end of an era. Trained within a conservatory system, she worked inside the format of the Soviet pop song while filling it with melodic logic that did not come from Moscow or Leningrad. Her voice is soft and sustained, shaped by Eastern melisma, and it never functions as decoration. Even in tightly structured songs there is a sense of resistance, an effort to preserve a musical language rooted in Uzbek tradition rather than fully adapted to an all Union standard.

The ensemble Sintez, later renamed Navo, represents a different path. Beginning as a student rock group, the band was gradually absorbed into the official VIA system with all its limitations and compromises. Yet it was precisely within those boundaries that Sintez and Navo developed a recognizable sound. Electric guitars and jazz rock harmonies do not overpower the folk material but remain in tension with it. Their recordings feel like negotiations between what the musicians wanted to play and what they were allowed to perform.

The Tajik ensemble Gulshan reflects an institutional approach carried to a high professional level. Formed under television and radio structures, the group treated folk material almost as a written score. Carefully constructed arrangements, close attention to orchestration, and restrained use of pop techniques define their sound. There is less spontaneity here, but a strong sense of discipline and structure, where national melody becomes part of a carefully controlled sonic framework.

Koma Wetan occupies a very different space. Formed in the 1970s, this Kurdish rock group approached poetry and folklore as tools of cultural assertion. Their psychedelic rock never feels like a stylistic borrowing. Instead it functions as a contemporary vessel for language and themes that might otherwise have remained unheard. Even today these recordings sound fragile and stubborn at the same time.

The Uyghur ensemble Yashlik, closely connected to a musical drama theatre, operated somewhere between stage performance and popular music. Their songs are built on folk melodies but shaped for wide audiences. What emerges is a constant attempt to preserve the recognizability of Uyghur musical identity without freezing it in a folkloric frame. Yashlik's music exists in a state of balance between representation and development.

Digging Central Asia does not attempt to establish hierarchies or offer a single wayof listening. Names and dates matter less than the sound itself. Tape noise, abrupt transitions, and unexpected timbres remain part of the material rather than flaws to be corrected. This music existed at the crossroads of multiple routes geographic, cultural, and ideological. Heard today in a new context, it no longer feels peripheral. Instead it stands as a reminder that the history of popular music is far more fragmented, layered, and polyphonic than it is usually allowed to be."

Recycled purple cassette tape The monster-collecting open-world RPG "Cassette Beasts" is delivering a furious 80's synth rock meets British indie soundtrack composed by Joel Baylis and featuring shooting star Shelby Harvey on vocals. This soundtrack is taking you on a journey across the mysterious island of New Wirral - from lo-fi acoustic ballads to all-out headbangers! By the way, welcome to New Wirral, a remote island inhabited by strange creatures you've only dreamed of, nightmares you hopefully haven't, and a cast of brave folks who use cassette tapes to transform for battle. To find a way home you'll need to explore every inch of the island, and record monsters to your trusty cassette tapes to gain their abilities!

Key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition.





For fans of pain & pleasure, Throbbing Gristle, lost horror soundtracks & haunted electronics.



Back in 1987, Clive Barker's supernatural body-horror classic Hellraiser hit cinemas worldwide and introduced audiences to the demonic Cenobites. Barker was a devoted COIL fan (Peter Christopherson and John Balance), and he famously said they were the only band he'd ever heard on record whose music he'd had to take off because, in his words, "theymade his bowels churn.". He initially invited them to compose the film's music, and the group began recording cues. But the producers at New World Pictures ultimately rejected the material in favor of a more traditional approach, bringing in Christopher Young, whose final score remains excellent, if less experimental. What remains from Coil is an unfinished soundtrack with surviving fragments and rough ideas, abruptly left behind mid-process, a glimpse into an alternate Hellraiser movie, one we can only fantasize into existence.



Nearly 40 years later, key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition, reassembled into a standalone, possibly definitive and strangely beautiful nightmare suite. Play it in the dark and experience the consequences of raising hell...