Patrick Cowley

Review: Disco producer, synthesizer pioneer and Hi-NRG originator Patrick Cowley made a lot of highly sexual music. In fact, his muscular synth-disco productions were, for years, the soundtrack of choice in San Francisco's notorious bathhouse scene. It doesn't stop there, though. Unbeknownst to most disco aficionados, Cowley also provided experimental synthesizer tracks to soundtrack gay porn films between 1973 and 1981. Initially released on vinyl last year, School Daze has now been granted a CD edition by Dark Entries and gathers together the best of those productions. Arguably, the material here is amongst his best work. Free of the constraints of the dancefloor, Cowley let himself go, delivering avant garde synthesizer compositions that ranged from spaciously psychedelic ("Out of Body", like some lost Confused House record) and decidedly cosmic (the chugging "Journey Home"), to otherworldly and outlandish ("Zygote"). Recommended.

Review: San Francisco's Honey Soundsystem are doing a good job in unearthing long-lost Patrick Cowley productions. Having previously joined forces with Dark Entries to release the pioneering producer's soundtrack to gay porn flick School Daze - and soon, a compilation of his other work for pornographic movies - they've decided to go solo on this 12". Kickin' In features a trio of previously unreleased Cowley disco workouts, recorded between 1975 and 1978. The real killer is the title track, a typically epic, 15-minute excursion that fuses Cowley's throbbing, masculine synthesizer lines with vocals and instrumentation from disco band Loverde. Flip for two groovy, low slung disco workouts that are, rather surprisingly, free of Cowley's usual Hi-NRG arpeggios. Instead, there are live basslines, organic percussion and decidedly sleazy spoken word vocals from the great man himself. In a word: essential.

Review: The final part of Dark Entries' long-running series of archival Patrick Cowley releases showcases tracks originally recorded for Afternooners, a late '70s gay porn film by director John Coletti. As with previous Cowley releases on Dark Entries, the double album also contains previously unheard material rediscovered from the Fox Studio archives. It's another essential collection of atmospheric synthesizer music in the producer's distinctive style, all told, with tracks ranging from the whistling cheeriness of "Hot Beach" and the sparkling, cowbell-laden throb of "One Hot Afternoon" to the dubbed-out, semi-ambient dreaminess of "Bore & Stroke" and the humid, upbeat "Jungle Orchid".

Review: Having previously impressed with their reissue of Patrick Cowley's brilliant, all-synthesizer soundtrack to obscure '70s gay porn flick School Daze, Dark Entries and Honey Sound System once again join forces to shine a light on the high energy disco pioneer's work for San Francisco's Fox Studios. Unsurprisingly, it's another impressive collection, and features material recorded for a number of different pornographic films. There are naturally more up-tempo moments - see "Somebody To Love Tonight", which would later be re-recorded with Sylvester, and the synth-weirdness-meets-jazz-funk brilliance of "5oz of Funk" - but it's the impressively cosmic and exotic ambient moments, such as the stand-out "Timelink" and "Jungle Magic", that really stand out.

Review: The latest previously unheard Patrick Cowley material to get the Dark Entries treatment was recorded between 1972 and 1975, and made in collaboration with budding actress - and later feminist pornography icon - Candida Royalle. It was apparently intended for experimental theatre productions, and contains some of Cowley's most enthralling, out-there electronic experiments. Royalle's freestyle vocals take pride of place on the spacey, otherworldly opener "Candida Cosmica", before weaving in and out of Cowley's sparse, alien electronics on 12-minute B-side cut "Shimmering (Where Am I)?". Perhaps the most inspired track of the lot - and that's saying something - is the proto-ambient weirdness of "Elementals", which makes great use of fuzzy radio records and curious modular noises.