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DE 333CD
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"Cybernetic disco maestro Patrick Cowley returns to Dark Entries with From Behind, a collection of grooving and ecstatic covers of '60s garage and soul cuts. Best known for his chart-topping disco anthems, Cowley left with an incredible body of work before his tragic death in 1982 due to AIDS-related illness. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley's friends and family to uncover the singular artist's lesser-known sides, including his soundtracks for films on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners. From Behind reveals yet another facet of Cowley's myriad influences; garage and soul. As a tripped-out teenage music freak who arrived in '60s San Francisco, it should come as no surprise that these psychedelic sounds, both heady and visceral, infuse Cowley's oeuvre. Recorded during Cowley's most productive period, '80-'82, these tracks show the master flexing his virtuosity while paying loving tribute to the songs that shaped him. A rough draft of Loverde's 'Iko Iko' contorts the jaunty Dixie Cups classic into a slithering, monstrous bathhouse groover, the song's signature claps draped in cavernous reverb. An unexpected hi-NRG cover of The Doors' '20th Century Fox' has Paul Parker on vocals, ironically twisting the original's overt heterosexuality. Via Cowley's vocoder, The Who's 'Shakin' All Over' is transformed into a haunting meditation on the loss of bodily autonomy that AIDS inflicts, while the Moody Blues' 'Ride My See Saw' appears in instrumental, amped up and synthesized for dancefloor impact. There are also instrumental demo versions of The Seeds' 'Pushin' Too Hard' and The Electric Prunes' 'Too Much To Dream (Last Night),' which later appeared on Paul Parker releases. Things close out with a swinging version of the Four Tops' Motown classic 'Baby I Need Your Loving,' Cowley later reimagined for R&B artist Carl Carlton. The record comes housed in a sleeve designed by Gwenaël Rattke and includes an insert with photos and liner notes written by Louis Niebur."
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LP
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DE 333LP
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LP version. "Cybernetic disco maestro Patrick Cowley returns to Dark Entries with From Behind, a collection of grooving and ecstatic covers of '60s garage and soul cuts. Best known for his chart-topping disco anthems, Cowley left with an incredible body of work before his tragic death in 1982 due to AIDS-related illness. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley's friends and family to uncover the singular artist's lesser-known sides, including his soundtracks for films on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners. From Behind reveals yet another facet of Cowley's myriad influences; garage and soul. As a tripped-out teenage music freak who arrived in '60s San Francisco, it should come as no surprise that these psychedelic sounds, both heady and visceral, infuse Cowley's oeuvre. Recorded during Cowley's most productive period, '80-'82, these tracks show the master flexing his virtuosity while paying loving tribute to the songs that shaped him. A rough draft of Loverde's 'Iko Iko' contorts the jaunty Dixie Cups classic into a slithering, monstrous bathhouse groover, the song's signature claps draped in cavernous reverb. An unexpected hi-NRG cover of The Doors' '20th Century Fox' has Paul Parker on vocals, ironically twisting the original's overt heterosexuality. Via Cowley's vocoder, The Who's 'Shakin' All Over' is transformed into a haunting meditation on the loss of bodily autonomy that AIDS inflicts, while the Moody Blues' 'Ride My See Saw' appears in instrumental, amped up and synthesized for dancefloor impact. There are also instrumental demo versions of The Seeds' 'Pushin' Too Hard' and The Electric Prunes' 'Too Much To Dream (Last Night),' which later appeared on Paul Parker releases. Things close out with a swinging version of the Four Tops' Motown classic 'Baby I Need Your Loving,' Cowley later reimagined for R&B artist Carl Carlton. The record comes housed in a sleeve designed by Gwenaël Rattke and includes an insert with photos and liner notes written by Louis Niebur."
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LP
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DE 297LP
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"Dark Entries calls on Philadelphia experimental duo The Ghostwriters to resurrect their 1981 LP of minimalist mayhem, Objects In Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear. The late Buchla maestro Charles Cohen and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Cain joined up in 1971 to craft electroacoustic chaos as Anomali, later renaming themselves The Ghostwriters. Their collaborations with choreographers and visual media artists led to their singular style, straddling improvisation and composition, the oneiric and the immediate. 1981 saw the release of their debut album, Objects In Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear, a whirling, messy, telepathic slipstream cascading across an imaginary landscape. Recorded in Don Buchla's childhood home, Objects offers eight cuts of minimalist electronic bliss, equal parts icy and quirky, with standout cuts including the grooving havoc of 'Fix it in the Mix' and the otherworldly hymn 'Moon Chant.' These angular pearls will be cherished by fans of John Bender, Ceramic Hello, and all strains of outsider '80s electronics. Objects In Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear has been freshly remastered and includes an insert with photos and liner notes. Proceeds from the album will be donated to SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse), a nonprofit that combats online child sex abuse and trafficking."
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2LP
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DE 325LP
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"Dark Entries summons Philadelphia synthesizer scribes The Ghostwriters to rouse their ambient masterwork Remote Dreaming. The late Buchla maestro Charles Cohen and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Cain joined up in 1971 to craft electroacoustic chaos as Anomali, later renaming themselves The Ghostwriters. Their collaborations with choreographers and visual media artists led to their singular style, straddling improvisation and composition, the oneiric and the immediate. Following their debut album, Objects in Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear, they were approached by ambient outlet Mu-Pysch. Remote Dreaming would take shape in various studios over nine months. Jeff Cain's instruments on this project included electric and acoustic pianos, the Juno 106 synthesizer, and a Mirage sampler, while Charles Cohen used his signature Buchla 200 Series Electronic Musical Instrument. A stark departure from the tightly wound first LP, Remote Dreaming shows the duo unfurling with soothing pianos and psychoacoustic textures, its somnambulant drones just skirting the edges of the uncanny. Although ignored in its time, Remote Dreaming is now heralded as a landmark in '80s experimental ambient music. It is here released for the first time on vinyl, spread across a double LP with five additional tracks, four of which were previously unreleased. Remote Dreaming has been freshly remastered and includes an insert with photos and liner notes. Proceeds will be donated to SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse), a nonprofit that combats online child sex abuse and trafficking."
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LP
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DE 323LP
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"Dark Entries returns to Mexico with Back Up Dos: Mexican Tecno Pop 1982-1989. Following 2021's Back Up compilation, Back Up Dos delivers ten more tracks of synth-pop and New Beat, seven of which have never before appeared on vinyl. From mutant drum machine beats to irresistible synthesizer hooks, fans of the fringes of the '80s will find songs to stir their cold, dark hearts. But Back Up Dos does more than mine retro kitsch; it documents the development of a rich DIY music scene that is still underexplored. As affordable samplers and digital synths spread throughout the decade, post-punk and new wave gave way to more aggressive EBM and cyberpunk sounds. The scene also developed in opposition to the political climate of the times: the rise of the drug cartels and a reactionary turn in national politics. Using home recording techniques, these bands took cues from the electronic wizardry of the Human League and Wax Trax Records while reflecting the vibrant and chaotic Mexican cultural landscape of the era. On Back Up Dos, impeccable pop anthems from Casino Shanghai and Los Agentes Secretos sit alongside gnarled obscurities from Ford Proco and María Bonita, showcasing a decade of sly deviance and enthusiastic experimentation. This album comes housed in an '80s-inflected neon sleeve designed by Gwenael Rattke and includes a 12-page booklet with photographs, lyrics, and notes. Back Up Dos compiles synthetic music produced in Mexico at the crossroads from tecno pop to post-industrial, nourished by culture shock and stories of dystopian worlds."
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2LP
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DE 314LP
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"Dark Entries picks up Severed Heads yet again for Ear Bitten, a double LP reissue of some of the band's earliest material. As originary Aussie industrial legends -- although founder Tom Ellard would balk at being branded as such -- Severed Heads shaped the continental subcultural sound with their kitchen electronics, chaotic tape loops, and quietly infectious nursery-rhyme-esque melodies. In 1979 Ellard, Richard Fielding, and Andrew Wright abandoned the moniker Mr. and Mrs. No Smoking Sign and adopted the edgier name Severed Heads 'to pretend to be an industrial band such as Surgical Penis Klinik & Throbbing Gristle.' Noise-rockers Rhythmx Chymx had placed an advertisement in a local shop looking for a band to share the costs of pressing an LP. The Heads set about recording a Dadaist racket on a pair of open reel dictaphones and a cassette deck using a TRS-80 computer, Kawai Synthesizer 100F and Korg Mini Pops drum machine. Ear Bitten was released in 1980; original copies now fetch obscene sums, in part due to most of Severed Heads' copies perishing in a fire at Richard's home. The band's next endeavor was a cassette titled Side 2, a collection of free-form experiments fashioned as Ear Bitten's second side. For this reissue, Dark Entries has collected both Ear Bitten and Side 2 on the first disc, presenting the album in its full form. Disc two includes the original first version of Ear Bitten, which was only unreleased because it was recorded in a format not suitable for pressing. The album comes in a gatefold sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh and includes photos, liner notes, and reproductions of the original Xerox inserts from the 1980 issue. Ear Bitten delivers 22 tracks of pain you can dance to!"
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LP
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DE 273LP
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"Dark Entries again shines a spotlight on bathhouse disco don Patrick Cowley with a newly remastered release of Kickin' In. Although Cowley tragically passed from AIDS-related illness in 1982, he left an extensive archive of unreleased tapes, many of which Dark Entries has had the honor of releasing. While working as a lighting technician at The City, SF's disco cabaret, Cowley saw rising star Frank Loverde perform. Cowley asked Loverde to contribute vocals to some material in progress, and Frank, Linda Imperial, and Peggy Gibbons joined Cowley in the studio. The resulting songs included 'Kickin' In,' a nine-minute cybernetic disco stormer that taps into the essence of Cowley's hi-NRG sound: equal parts spaced out and zoned in on the dancefloor. In May 1978 Cowley joined Loverde on stage at The City to perform 'Kickin' In' as they opened for disco diva Sylvester. 'Kickin' In' was initially released in 2015 via Honey Soundsystem who found the tapes in the basement of Megatone Records owner John Hedges. This newly remastered version was made possible due to the discovery of the original multi-track recordings of 'Kickin' In,' allowing for a fresh mixdown by Jim Hopkins as well as the creation of a new instrumental version. Also included are two impeccably sleazy Cowley jams recorded in 1980, 'Thief of Love' and 'Make It Come Loose.' Cowley narrates excerpts from his erotic journals on these raunchy slow-burners, capturing the vibe of SF's leather bars and backrooms. 'Thief of Love' features frequent Cowley collaborator Paul Parker on background vocals. This reissue of Kickin' In includes features an illustration by Gwenaël Rattke that originally appeared Cowley's erotic journal, Mechanical Fantasy Box, as well as a postcard with lyrics."
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LP
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DE 001X-LP
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"Dark Entries celebrates its 15th anniversary by returning to where it all started, the initial darkest entry: Eleven Pond's masterpiece Bas Relief, an ultra-obscure album from 1986 that would become a definitive dark pop holy grail. Eleven Pond was James Tabbi (vocals, acoustic guitar), Jeff Gallea (drum machine, synthesizer, vocals), Jack Schaeffer (guitar) and Dan Brumley (synthesizer, samples, vocoder, melodica). They met in Rochester, NY, while attending art school, brought together by their shared love of 4AD and Factory Records. Taking cues from acts like Joy Division, Fad Gadget, and For Against, Eleven Pond's infectious basslines, churning guitar riffs, and atmospheric synths will charm all fans of moody music. But what really makes Bas Relief shine is the timeless songwriting on classics like 'Tear and Cinnamon,' 'Portugal,' and the anthemic 'Watching Trees.' With only 500 copies in its initial release, Bas Relief resurfaces with a fresh remaster that corrects a pitch shift from previous reissues. Each copy is housed in a screen-printed jacket, like the 1986 edition, and includes a lyric sheet, two postcards and a bookmark. Bas Relief is a true lost relic of the cold '80s and an essential piece Dark Entries history."
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LP
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DE 328LP
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"Dark Entries celebrates its 15th anniversary with legendary synth-punk deviants Crash Course in Science. Dale Feliciello, Mallory Yago, and Michael Zodorozny formed CCIS in 1979 after meeting at art school in Philadelphia. As a gesture born of equal parts punk irreverence and brute necessity, the band incorporated toy instruments and kitchen appliances into their aggressive, angular sound. Their anthems 'Cardboard Lamb' and 'Flying Turns' from 1981's Signals From Pier Thirteen EP have been staples in adventurous DJ sets for over 40 years -- yet some of their finest work is to be found on Near Marineland, a full-length LP recorded in 1981 but remained unreleased in its time. Near Marineland shows the band moving into more diverse and polished territory (although it's still as abrasive as sandpaper). Tracks like 'No More Hollow Doors' and 'Jump Over Barrels' highlight CCIS's singular knack for embedding infectiously monotone hooks in their stiff-yet-funky grooves. Elsewhere, CCIS goes fully unhinged, like on the searing 'Someone Reads' or the demented 'Pompeii Spared,' where a spray of honks is barely glued together by a frantic synthetic pulse. While this masterwork of malfunctioning analog electronics has surfaced on a few occasions -- this first-time stand-alone remaster includes four never-before-released bonus tracks and includes a lyric sheet. Near Marineland is crucial listening for all devotees of synth-punk and minimal electronics."
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LP
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DE 324LP
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"Ortrotasce comes to Dark Entries with Dispatches From Solitude, their latest LP. For over a decade, Nic Hamersly has been using the Ortotrasce (pronounced: or-tro-task) moniker to unleash brooding-yet-propulsive darkwave anthems upon the world. Hamersly's work explores the intersection between industrial and synth pop, drawing a line from the sounds of the past to the present. Recorded during the Covid and post-Covid era, Dispatches from Solitude brings eight tracks of tightly wrought synth-pop exploring grief, romance, and our strange world -- which just keeps getting stranger. The cover art was designed by Hamersly, and the record includes a postcard with notes. Dispatches From Solitude will thrill fans of classic industrial-laced wave bands like Hard Corps, Fad Gadget, and SPK."
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LP
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DE 307LP
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"The seductive sounds of Portugal swing to Dark Entries on Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa 1985-1986, a compilation of vintage Iberian synth, wave, and postpunk gems. The legendary club Rock Rendez Vous (RRV) opened its doors in Lisbon in 1980, heralding a new era in the Portuguese underground. Although touring acts like Killing Joke, Danse Society, or Echo & the Bunnymen graced its stage, RRV more vitally served as ground zero for a new generation of Portuguese bands, one simultaneously in touch with broader international musical movements while being invested in establishing a national sonic identity. Rock Rendez Vous culls nine tracks of prime Portuguese indie tunes from the Música Moderna Portuguesa compilations released in 1985 and 1986, documenting the heyday of this movement. Jangly and brooding postpunk gems like 'Levante' from Jovem Guarda, Projecto Azul's 'New Sides,' and Essa Entente's 'Festa Final' are well-represented here. Meanwhile, quirky Balearic-laced synthpop gems like D. W. Art's 'Mate' or Zona Proibida's 'Musak' add a subtly regional flare. Rock Rendez Vous: Música Moderna Portuguesa comes housed in a sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a photo of the club RRV, and also includes a double-sided insert with lyrics, photos, and liner notes."
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12"
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DE 317EP
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"Coti K. brings five tracks of Balearic-ambient sweetness to Dark Entries. Italian-Greek musician Costantino Luca Rolando Kiriakos has been a pioneering force in the Athens electronic music scene since the mid-'80s, wearing hats as diverse as composer, sound engineer, and installation artist. His countless projects and collaborators include Tuxedomoon, Stereo Nova, In Trance 95, and RAW (previously reissued by Dark Entries). 1994's Theros, Kiriakos's first release as Coti K., was comprised of three tracks of breezy downtempo beats, brimming with smooth breaks, boomy 808s, and cosmically chill pads and pianos. In tune with the global vibes of the emerging ambient electronica movement, Coti K. brings a dose of his Hellenic heritage with tracks titles like 'Argonauts' and 'Theros.' The title track includes spoken word contributions from Konstantinos Bhta of Stereo Nova and is built off of a drum loop from Greek goth outfit Flowers of Romance. The sauntering 'Blue' features vocals by Christina Moraki which were captured on a portable tape recorder, while the instrumental 'Argonauts' is bolstered by cello from Nikos Veliotis. This reissue also includes two tracks from Coti's 1997 debut LP ? 'Shoal' and 'Notte Estiva' -- which have never before appeared on vinyl, and show Coti experimenting with ambient and IDM styles. The cover art for Theros is a photo of the ocean by Giannis Papaioannou of RAW featuring early digital processing done on a Macintosh LC. Coti's Theros is a timely slice of '90s nostalgia with a uniquely Mediterranean twist."
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LP
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DE 298LP
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"Doc Sleep returns to Dark Entries with Cloud Sight Fade, an album of ethereal house and techno. Doc Sleep is the alias of DJ and producer Melissa Maristuen. Following 2023's Birds, her ambient and IDM-leaning debut album, Cloud Sight Fade shows Doc drawing on her years of queer clubbing to bring seven diverse tracks sitting between muscular New York house, Berlin twilight techno, and funky West-coast breakbeats. Production began in the Bay Area and was completed in Berlin; Maristuen says that this work became a love letter to the West Coast's magnificent natural landscape, the light of the Pacific sunrise. While draped in dreamlike textures and melodies, this is also a record about embodiment and the memories that live within corporeal forms. The powerful grooves on the breakbeat-inflected 'Lemon Zest' and the propulsive 'Cloud Sight Fade' remind listeners that dance music is for bodies dancing. Meanwhile, tracks like the sparkling album-closer 'Enchanted Static' or the brooding groover 'Water Sign' plunge listeners deeper into hypnotic depths. On Cloud Sight Fade, Doc Sleep guides through slumber and wakefulness, in and out of bodies, with the mastery of a seasoned DJ and clubgoer."
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LP
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DE 319LP
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"Bay Area post-punk outfit Topographies deliver their sophomore LP, Interior Spring, via Dark Entries. Formed in 2018 in San Francisco by Justin Oronos, Jeremie Ruest, and Gray Tolhurst, Topographies link the icy riffs and gloomy atmosphere of early coldwave with the textural depth and warmth of classic shoegaze, emerging with a style that's both contemporary and timeless. On Interior Spring, Topographies explore themes of guilt, inherited trauma, and recovery. The meaning of its title is triplicate: a submerged river carrying hope, an anxiously wound clock, and a season where wildflowers bloom on the graves of the past. While the work of Tolhurst's father -- Laurence Tolhurst from The Cure -- provides a clear influence, Topographies expertly channel acts like Asylum Party or The Chameleons on anthemic pearls like 'Night Sea' and 'Chain of Days.' Tolhurst's lyrics draw on his own experience in recovery from substance abuse to examine the cycle of use and hopelessness that characterizes addiction. Through these ten songs, the group hopes to present the idea that freedom is not an escape but an embrace of the quotidian beauty of human life."
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12"
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DE 309EP
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"Lust Pattern slithers its way to Dark Entries with four tracks of deviant electro-wave on Stand, Scatter. Ryan Armbridge has graced Dark Entries several times via his project Linea Aspera, a revered coldwave revivalist duo with Zoe Zanias. As Lust Pattern, Armbridge draws hypnotic paths through the reverb-laden halls of post-punk and electro-funk, coursing in a gait uniquely his own. Built up from improvised jams, the four cuts on Stand, Scatter defy neat categorization while spanning a wide breadth of genres. Opener 'Forming Lines' features Drexciyan squelch, silky guitar, and bursts of live drumming; this sounds like a lot, but it coheres into a perfectly simmering stew of funk. 'Choreography' preserves the aquatic vibes but bumps the tempo up into space disco territory, complete with laser bleeps and Moroder-esque pads. It's a mark of Armbridge's craft that closing track 'No Floor' -- a searing motorik synth punk jam that recalls Suicide at their finest -- sounds not at all out of place, but rather serves as a logical conclusion to this illogical picture. Stand, Scatter drifts across genres but never loses its focus on the unorthodox groove."
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LP
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DE 318LP
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"Bay Area DIY pop duo Loveshadow join up with Dark Entries to release II, their sophomore LP. Anya Prisk and Izaak Schlossman met in Oakland in 2016, bonded over their love of '80s sounds and immediately began building their musical world with lush synths, funky basslines, and irresistible hooks. The past is always in their palette, but Loveshadow's nostalgia doesn't trace to any single locus; it's more like a cloud, and it's through this haze that they breathe new life into the music they love. Their debut album was released in 2021 on Music from Memory to acclaim. II presents a more subtle and refined statement from the band - laser-focused on the vaporous expanse. Album opener 'Last Room' saunters with the confidence of Sade, while 'Earthen Track' feels like Kate Bush covering a forgotten city pop anthem. The album is largely focused on club-friendly material, but mellower pieces like 'Winter's Door' and 'Mirage' are sophisticated stand-outs that would make Ryuichi Sakamoto proud. Italo funk groover 'Power Melts Away' closes out the album by upping the energy into fist-pumping territory. Anya's lyrics on II use the unreality of dreams as a lens to examine the realities of change and personal growth; illusions made material. Loveshadow elegantly smear the lines between past and present, pop and avant, immanent and transcendent."
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2LP
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DE 295LP
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Repressed; double LP version. "Nervous Gender's legendary synthpunk LP Music From Hell burbles up from infernal depths to resurface on Dark Entries! Confrontational, unhinged, and unabashedly queer, Music from Hell is an unholy grail for fans of the strangest underbellies of post-punk, minimal synth, and early industrial music, and is presented here newly remastered and on expanded double LP. Nervous Gender (de)formed in LA in 1978 at the hands of Phranc, Gerardo Velaquez, Edward Stapleton, and Michael Ochoa. Phranc, the androgynous embodiment of the band's name, left in 1980. Following her departure, a wide cast of LA freaks would find themselves drawn into the band's orbit, including Alice Bag of the Bags, Paul Roessler of the Screamers, the Germs' Don Bolles, and an 8-year-old drummer named Sven Pfeiffer. In 1980, Nervous Gender appeared on the seminal Live at Target compilation alongside Factrix, uns, and Flipper. With the band's notoriety cemented, Music from Hell followed in 1981 on Subterranean Records (as no LA label would touch this material). Side A, dubbed 'Martyr Complex,' presents a more punk-forward sound with live drum salvos and slabs of aggressive synth. These twitchy, unsettling shockers ooze with the kind of snotty misanthropy that will endear them to fans of the Screamers or Crass. Side B, known as 'Beelzebub Youth,' is a live performance the band labeled 'an electronic bruto-canto dissertation on the banality of spiritual transcendence.' Mutant melodies cede way to synthesized clangs, whirs, bleeps, manipulated tapes, and howls of despair. In addition to all the material from the original LP, we're treated to a full disc of the band's demos, the material from the Live at Target compilation, and early live recordings. Included are unrecognizable covers of Carly Simon and Lou Reed, and the Sex Pistols that are so despairingly skewed they fall into the void. This reissue of Music From Hell includes a 36-page lyric booklet, foldout poster, and gatefold sleeve with photos, flyers, and news-clippings designed by Eloise Leigh. Tackling taboo issues like sexual kinks, mental illness, drug use, and childhood molestation, Music From Hell is still surprising -- even shocking -- over 40 years after the album's release. Nervous Gender stand as one of the most genuinely anti-establishment outfits in underground music, a colossal fuck you to social norms from religious strictures to gender essentialism."
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DE 295CD
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"Nervous Gender's legendary synthpunk LP Music From Hell burbles up from infernal depths to resurface on Dark Entries! Confrontational, unhinged, and unabashedly queer, Music from Hell is an unholy grail for fans of the strangest underbellies of post-punk, minimal synth, and early industrial music, and is presented here newly remastered and on expanded double LP. Nervous Gender (de)formed in LA in 1978 at the hands of Phranc, Gerardo Velaquez, Edward Stapleton, and Michael Ochoa. Phranc, the androgynous embodiment of the band's name, left in 1980. Following her departure, a wide cast of LA freaks would find themselves drawn into the band's orbit, including Alice Bag of the Bags, Paul Roessler of the Screamers, the Germs' Don Bolles, and an 8-year-old drummer named Sven Pfeiffer. In 1980, Nervous Gender appeared on the seminal Live at Target compilation alongside Factrix, uns, and Flipper. With the band's notoriety cemented, Music from Hell followed in 1981 on Subterranean Records (as no LA label would touch this material). Side A, dubbed 'Martyr Complex,' presents a more punk-forward sound with live drum salvos and slabs of aggressive synth. These twitchy, unsettling shockers ooze with the kind of snotty misanthropy that will endear them to fans of the Screamers or Crass. Side B, known as 'Beelzebub Youth,' is a live performance the band labeled 'an electronic bruto-canto dissertation on the banality of spiritual transcendence.' Mutant melodies cede way to synthesized clangs, whirs, bleeps, manipulated tapes, and howls of despair. In addition to all the material from the original LP, we're treated to a full disc of the band's demos, the material from the Live at Target compilation, and early live recordings. Included are unrecognizable covers of Carly Simon and Lou Reed, and the Sex Pistols that are so despairingly skewed they fall into the void. This reissue of Music From Hell includes a 36-page lyric booklet, foldout poster, and gatefold sleeve with photos, flyers, and news-clippings designed by Eloise Leigh. Tackling taboo issues like sexual kinks, mental illness, drug use, and childhood molestation, Music From Hell is still surprising -- even shocking -- over 40 years after the album's release. Nervous Gender stand as one of the most genuinely anti-establishment outfits in underground music, a colossal fuck you to social norms from religious strictures to gender essentialism."
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DE 315LP
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"Disco legend Sylvester comes to Dark Entries with Private Recordings: August 1970, an intimate collection of vintage jazz, blues, and gospel. While Sylvester is best known for his chart-topping collaborations with producer Patrick Cowley, such as 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),' this release reveals his passion for the sounds of the '30s and '40s. In 1970 a 22-year-old Sylvester had moved to San Francisco and found himself involved with the Cockettes, the infamous psychedelic performance art troupe. Among this milieu was Peter Mintun, a pianist and record collector living in a commune devoted to retro culture. According to Mintun, 'We were like hippies who lived in the twenties. We lived in a house that didn't have anything modern in it. Nothing in it was made after World War II.' Mintun and Sylvester bonded over their love of Black singers of yore and were allotted a slot during Cockettes performances reviving the music of the Prohibition Era. One afternoon, Sylvester and Mintun recorded a number of their shared favorites using a high-end microphone a friend had acquired. Private Recordings features ninr songs from this session, including standards like 'Stormy Weather,' 'Happy Days Are Here Again,' and 'God Bless the Child.' Sylvester's unmistakable falsetto brings depth and a dash of camp to these familiar tunes. The recordings are casual and intimate, even capturing banter between Sylvester and Mintun; their brief rendition of 'When My Dreamboat Comes Home' has the duo working out a melody in real time. In addition to their sonic explorations of decades past, Sylvester and Mintun also staged photographic shoots in vintage couture. Private Recordings comes with a 16-page booklet on firm cardstock featuring images from these never-before-seen shoots as well as liner notes from Mintun detailing his friendship with Sylvester and their experiences recording. All this is housed in a metallic silver sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a 1920's Art Deco aesthetic. The record will be released on September 6th which would have been Sylvester's 76th birthday, and all proceeds from Private Recordings will go to the two charities that Sylvester left his royalties after his death: Project Open Hand and PRC (formerly AIDS Emergency Fund). This essential release documents the earliest known recordings from one of disco's greatest talents."
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LP
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DE 299LP
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"Ian Elms's cult isolationist synth masterpiece Good Night returns via Dark Entries. Originally released in 1982, Good Night blends Berlin school minimalism and BBC Radiophonic weirdness with the aesthetics of then-nascent DIY punk electronics throughout its fifteen short tracks. According to Elms, these pieces were composed in two broad but interrelated modes: pieces with voice and synthesizer, which are obliquely narrative, and instrumental synthesizer pieces that aspire to capture fleeting emotions. Ian met with producer David Hoser at Octopus Studios and they began constructing pieces using a Polymoog Keyboard 280a, sampled drum tracks, and Elms's synthesizer. On 'The Street Enters the House,' live drums lurch along with skeletal motifs while Elms's elliptical lyrics evoke domestic discontent. 'A Light Moves Across Curtains' features metronomic pummeling and icy strings buttressing the scant cryptic lines from Elms. Instrumental gems like 'Goodnight' and 'Surrounded by Trees' are built around detuned riffs in round-like structure, both drifting and static like the motion of waves. With original pressings fetching three digits -- if you can even find a copy -- this reissue is essential listening for fans of John Bender, Transparent Illusion, and the early '80s DIY cassette scene. Each copy of Good Night comes with a postcard featuring a photograph and notes by Elms."
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LP
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DE 310LP
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"Dark Entries and Papi Juice Records team up for No Jack Swing, the solo electronic debut of multi-hype man Brontez Purnell. The Southern-raised, Oakland-based musician and writer has centered his queerness and Blackness in projects Gravy Train and Younger Lovers as well as in his award-winning books 100 Boyfriends and Since I Laid My Burden Down. On No Jack Swing, Purnell gives us a love letter to the most beloved (and secularized) of drum patterns -- that is, the electronic 808 'Amen Break'. Beginning recording in 2020, Purnell conceived of No Jack Swing as an audio zine of found sound materials: chain letters of instrumentals recorded in bedrooms, poems from boys in France, found gospel tapes from his childhood family Baptist Choir, and the sound of records skipping on his bedroom turntable. No Jack Swing is as much a homage to no wave and New Jack Swing as it is an answering to the gods of indie, electroclash, disco, and gospel. Amidst all this background noise, the unexpected occurs: all the niche pretensions collapse to a singularity -- the sound of high pop! No Jack Swing was produced by Nightfeelings. Each copy of includes a lyric sheet with a photo of Brontez."
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3LP
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DE 300LP
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"The venerable Dark Entries celebrates its 300th release with Panoramic Coloursound, a triple LP from the Creative Technology Consortium. Traxx, Andrew Bisenius, and Jason Letkiewicz forged the CtC during the depths of pandemic isolation. Drawing from film and television music of the '80s/'90s and armed with a mighty array of vintage analog and digital synthesizers, they set out to explore heists, vices, and catastrophe. Panoramic Coloursound collapses sound and image into a neon blur throughout its 25 tracks. While retro scores were the starting point for the CtC, the project does more than pay dutiful homage -- these notes are warped and skewed, devolving into decaying digital soundscapes. EBM-inflected basslines pop up on tracks like 'Catastrophe' and 'A Retro Vice,' menacing numbers that recall Traxx and Letkiewicz's legendary work as Mutant Beat Dance (a project also featuring Beau Wanzer). 'Follow Our Kode' pairs heroic synths with funky bass, striking cosmic chords akin to the material that Traxx and Bisenius have released as An Anomaly. Krautrock-esque guitars slide along anthemic pads on 'Beautifully Polluted Sunset,' which comes across like an alien Miami Vice closing theme. The CtC channel corroded VHS vibes while making music for the future. Panoramic Coloursound was mastered by Frédéric Alstadt. The sleeve was designed by Eloise Leigh, and features a photograph by Jason Letkiewicz. Also included is a postcard featuring liner notes, a gear list, and a photograph by Maria Tzeka."
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CD
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DE 305CD
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"Dark Entries has a surprise delivery! Malebox brings us six previously unreleased funk-fueled jams from the archives of the cybernetic disco titan himself, Patrick Cowley. Best known for his chart-topping disco anthems, Cowley left us with an incredible body of work before his tragic death in 1982 due to AIDS-related illness. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley's friends and family to uncover the singular artist's lesser-known sides, including his soundtracks for gay pornographic films on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners. But Malebox gives us more of the Cowley we know and love: churning disco-funk and hi-NRG tracks that are spacey and sleazy, gritty and sublime. Recorded from 1979-1981, these six tracks illuminate what was one of Patrick's most creatively exciting periods. 'If You Feel It' and 'Love Me Hot' were both early Paul Parker demos; the former is a peak hour hi-NRG bomb, while the latter dips into Cowley's zoned-out space disco sound. Jeanie Tracy's soulful vocals feature on the demo version of 'Low Down Dirty Rhythm,' which was later re-recorded by Sarah Dash. The slower, less-varnished rendition here hits with a wild psychedelic edge. Meanwhile, Patrick's gifts for careful orchestration and infectious melodies shine on 'Floating' and 'Love and Passion,' which were likely demo tracks for Loverde. The songs on Malebox display the vitality and inventiveness of a brilliant composer taken from us too soon. Malebox sleeve design was by Gwenaël Rattke, and features a hyper-color retro collage. Also included is an air mail envelope containing a letter from Patrick Cowley to French disco producer Pierre Jaubert as well as liner notes and hand-written lyrics."
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LP
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DE 305LP
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LP version. "Dark Entries has a surprise delivery! Malebox brings us six previously unreleased funk-fueled jams from the archives of the cybernetic disco titan himself, Patrick Cowley. Best known for his chart-topping disco anthems, Cowley left us with an incredible body of work before his tragic death in 1982 due to AIDS-related illness. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley's friends and family to uncover the singular artist's lesser-known sides, including his soundtracks for gay pornographic films on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners. But Malebox gives us more of the Cowley we know and love: churning disco-funk and hi-NRG tracks that are spacey and sleazy, gritty and sublime. Recorded from 1979-1981, these six tracks illuminate what was one of Patrick's most creatively exciting periods. 'If You Feel It' and 'Love Me Hot' were both early Paul Parker demos; the former is a peak hour hi-NRG bomb, while the latter dips into Cowley's zoned-out space disco sound. Jeanie Tracy's soulful vocals feature on the demo version of 'Low Down Dirty Rhythm,' which was later re-recorded by Sarah Dash. The slower, less-varnished rendition here hits with a wild psychedelic edge. Meanwhile, Patrick's gifts for careful orchestration and infectious melodies shine on 'Floating' and 'Love and Passion,' which were likely demo tracks for Loverde. The songs on Malebox display the vitality and inventiveness of a brilliant composer taken from us too soon. Malebox sleeve design was by Gwenaël Rattke, and features a hyper-color retro collage. Also included is an air mail envelope containing a letter from Patrick Cowley to French disco producer Pierre Jaubert as well as liner notes and hand-written lyrics."
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