New releases last four weeks: All genres

Review: And the award for best box set idea of the year goes to Ghostly International, who've recognised the untapped crossover market potential between tape culture and architecturally minded 3D sandbox gaming. Both Minecraft and cassettes offer unequivocal home downtime experiences, so what better way than to celebrate such ingenious associations than with a mammoth expansion of Daniel Rosenfeld's original soundtrack under the name C418? After many vinyl and CD reissues became fanatic cult favorites, with several sold-out color variants, now both volumes Alpha and Beta appear in opaque green; assuming the rewind button functions properly and the reels haven't garbled round the spools, you're in for a degradable lo-fi treat and analogue alternative listening experience; mute the laptop output and fire up the Nakamichi, you wally.

Review: The good news is this isn't a glitch in the matrix, there is an actual new Pulp album out on cassette in 2025. Nearly three decades on from their generation-defining album Different Class and the love for Pulp is still potent. Cocker's kept his tools sharp with various projects and collaborations - including Jav Is... - over the past few years, but that's done little to dampen the yearning from around the world for new Pulp. When they released 'Spike Island' to get the ball rolling, a special tribute was made to late former bassist Steve Mackay, who died in 2023. Two songs on the record are said to date from when Mackay was around, which makes him feel part of this incredibly special project.