Sideral
Bloop EP

DE283 - US - 2021darkentriesrecords · Patrick Cowley - Some Funkettes CLIPSDark Entries is humbled to continue digging through the archives of legendary producer Patrick Cowley. While best known for his production on chart-topping cybernetic disco anthems such as Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” or his own “Menergy”, Cowley, who passed away from AIDS-related illness in 1982, left us with a substantial body of work. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley’s friends and family to shed light on the lesser known facets of this singular artist’s output. This has resulted in a string of celebrated archival albums, including Catholic (featuring Jorge Socarras), School Daze, Muscle Up, Afternooners, and the recent Mechanical Fantasy Box. Some Funkettes, the latest addition to this series, is a collection of previously unreleased cover songs recorded from 1975-1977. These raw, unembellished tributes both showcase Cowley’s early musical interests and chart the development of his production techniques. Some Funkettes opens with Cowley’s sauntering instrumental rendition of “Do It Anyway You Wanna”, the disco classic by People’s Choice. Next is a psychedelic reworking of the Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, here hazily retitled “Papa Wuzza Rollinston”. Over its 7 minute runtime, the track’s metronomic, minimal groove builds to a frantic synth solo - this is pure Bay Area motorik. “Spiked Punch”, a curious riff on Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” follows. Cowley’s lurching, minimalist reimagining of Hancock’s opus prefigures the work he would later do on Sylvester’s masterpiece “I Need Somebody to Love Tonight”. Side B opens with a truly important historical document: Cowley’s cover of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”. The Moroder-produced disco anthem was a critical influence on Cowley - he would later resculpt the original song into arguably its highest form with his 15-minute-long remix. The instrumental cover version here is sparse and euphoric, brimming with classic Cowley synth signatures alongside the infectious Moroder bassline. A relatively faithful take on Bazuka’s 1975 funk classic “Dynomite” follows. The record closes with the dub version of “Spiked Punch”, which highlights developments in Cowley’s recording and synthesis techniques by way of its resonant burbles and spring reverb-laden passages.Some Funkettes was made possible with help from Patrick's brother Jim and his former studiomate Maurice Tani. All songs were mastered for vinyl by George Horn. The sleeve is a collage designed in 1975 by Cowley’s former roommate Francesca Rosa that was found covering a reel to reel box. It features a yin-yang symbol and a photograph of a scruffy 24 year old Patrick, to which we added his original handwriting. Each record comes with an insert featuring a four page essay by Francesca as well as a postcard featuring liner notes and a photograph by Cowley’s roommate and best friend, Theresa McGinley. Vocal versions of “Papa Wuzza Rollingston” and “Do It Anyway You Wanna” are included as bonus tracks on the digital and CD releases. This peek into Cowley’s formative years arrives just in time for what would have been his 70th birthday.

Code Versus by Joni Void + Sarah Pagé

Para One · SPECTRE: Machines of Loving GraceMachines of Loving Grace, available in half speed mastered 180g double lp housed in a heavy sleeve with UV spot varnish. Machines of Loving Grace, the new album by Para One, whose real name is Jean-Baptiste de Laubier could be called fiction. It is an object freed from constraints, formats, genres, territories: the gospel of a new world. Six years after Club, eight years after Passion, his previous LP, this lover of electronic music, who has also been putting his sensitivity to the service of movies (soundtracks for Céline Sciamma in particular) opens with this record a new dimension in his artistic career. “I needed to break away from patterns and systematisms of formats, and take unexpected turns. To do so, I had first to allow myself to do so”. Allow oneself and maybe above all confront oneself – with one’s childhood, with one’s childhood’s ghosts, and what fantasies, ideals, memories, and grey areas they harbor. He had to go back – without giving up on his position as an adult, as a full-fledged artist – to the sources of his imagination, to the moment when music was holding almost mystical power. And then revisit it to make something new out of it. Just like Sanity, Madness & the Family (the feature film directed by Para One that he just finished and of which it is a consubstantial part), Machines of Loving Grace has an investigation around a family secret and the father figure as its starting point.

Panic is the very first pseudonym of the legendary DJ and producer Aubrey, also renowned to have set the seminal label Solid Groove in the early '90s which includes licensing from the likes of Derrick May, Carl Cox, Pete Tong. The original release "Dialated Rhythms / Last Injection" fully remastered and reissued via the Italian La Bella Di Notte, is a sublime mix of techno and sophisticated breakbeat for a hypnotic journey all the way through any classic warehouse parties.

Austudy Records is proud to present it’s debut release Burning It Up: Australian Reggae (1979-1986). Acompilation surveying the influence of Reggae on Australia’s preoccupation with Rock, Pop and New Wavebetween the years of 1979-1986. This selection of 8 obscure tracks originally issued on 7” records representsome of the earliest examples of Reggae sounds in Australian recorded music.

Original stock copies direct from the man...Slept on heavy head nod tracks, get them while we got 'em.