The Gentle People were a group of friends who went by the aliases Dougee Dimensional, Laurie LeMans, Valentine Carnelian*, and Honeymink. Their adventures began when Dougee and Honey started throwing themed, “dress up” parties at their shared house in Brixton during the early 1990s. Lifting the name for these events from notorious kitsch 1970s flick, “Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls”. 

They were enthusiastic contributors to an “E-Z listening” scene, made possible by a then un-gentrified, still sleazy West End, that for a while flourished in London. Bruce Marcus’ Club Indigo is the place that springs to my mind, but The Gentle People were very tight with James Munns and Martin Dingle aka The Karminksy Experience. 

Guided by Carnelian’s considerable production chops The Gentle People set about sampling the `60s pop they coveted to create something just as shiny, but brand new. A demo was passed, via a mutual mate, to Richard D. James who, “fed up with boring techno”, signed the outfit to his imprint, Rephlex. This debut long-player, “Soundtracks For Living” has just been reissued by WRWTFWW.**

Close harmonies combine with flute, harp, theremin and jazzy modular, modal bass-lines to create a superior Sci-Fi bachelor / bachelorette pad muzak. The results sometimes a serene, synthetic shimmer, and at others groovy Stereolab-esque gear. The crew crooning like The Sandpipers, Mamas & Papas or The Groop swinging in zero gravity, while dressed like flight attendants on a package trip to Mars. Everything a slightly psychedelic. Strictly lava lamps and mini-skirted, kinky-booted go-go dancers. Not Ken Russell’s “Altered States”. 

Sexy tropes are deliberately toyed with. There are weightless washes of Japanese whispers. Sex kittens purr in English and French. Strings soar, romantic and cinematic. Tipping their hats to Bob Crewe’s Barbarella and Burt Bacharach’s Casino Royale. Borrowing from Henry Mancini. Pianos nodding toward Vladimir Cosma’s Diva score. Some of it sounds like electronic extrapolations of Saint Etienne’s campier moments. Echoed Hawaii guitar sees the influence of The KLF’s “Chill Out” creeping in. 

The expanded reissue contains several takes on the track “Journey”. The quartet’s first single, and perhaps their lasting landmark, this is a charming, chanting, enchanting, bionic bossa nova populated by harp-playing angels. An extended instrumental take remains beatless, but rides techno / prog almost acidic squelches, while flurries of fleet fingers raise countering quick conga currents and bubbling sound effects reflect the album’s manga-mimicking artwork. James, as The Aphex Twin, then turns in an uncharacteristically sympathetic, un-radical remix. Simply upping the Latin percussion and looping the original’s melody. Snatches of seductive eavesdropped conversation – a la Vangelis’ “Good To See You” – suffusing the swooning Gian Piero Reverberi / Robinson Crusoe-esque orchestration.

Throughout lyrics are reduced to soft-focus, siren-like mantras, surfing a sea of sonic tranquility. Intentionally / purposefully cultivating a cultish air. On “Laurie’s Theme”, for example, “I love the Gentle People” is repeated over and over. Like a mix of “The Manchurian Candidate” and OSHO. It’s all done very carefully, with an incredible eye for detail, but it’s also super tongue-in-cheek. 

The 4 friends christened their concept The Primula Aesthetic – “It’s not just cheese, it’s fake cheese.” However, here their self-deprecation does them a disservice, since the music has stood the test of time, and now, nearly 30 years later, doesn’t seem throwaway, disposable, plastic, at all, and instead hits like something from the recently celebrated Telepathic Fish playlist. There are significant similarities with Japan’s highly respected  / influential Water Melon, and really, the whole LP’s up there with lauded releases by artists such as Air, Skylab and Nightmares On Wax.

The Gentle People’s Soundtracks For Living can be ordered directly from the newly truncated We Release. 

For more info on The Gentle People there’s a great interview with Dougee Dimensional and Honeymink by Laurie Pina aka Angel Pen.

*Valentine Carnelian was the alias of Jeremy Leahy, a prominent member the UK electronica community who sadly passed away in 2021. Pre-The Gentle People, as part of Sisterlove he was responsible for the Cafe del Mar classic, The Hypnotist. 

**Recently truncated to the more proper, polite We Release.