PATRICK COWLEY

Mechanical Fantasy Box

DARK ENTRIES

8/10

Lost private works by the late HI-NRG icon, released on double LP with book

Patrick Cowley is one of those rare figures whose work continually reveals hidden depths. Born in Buffalo, New York, he relocated to the West Coast in the early ’70s to study electronic music. As disco boomed, Cowley’s hands were at the controls – he produced Sylvester’s US No 1 “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and remixed Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” in a tireless, pulsating style that would become known as HI-NRG. But his death from Aids in November 1982 cut him off in his prime, and it’s taken a raft of reissues on San Francisco’s Dark Entries imprint to show off the breadth of Cowley’s music, which ranged from Bowie-esque balladeering to gay porn soundtracks – and beyond. Even with this in mind, though, Mechanical Fantasy Box feels like new territory. Comprising unreleased music Cowley recorded between 1973 and 1980, it draws back the curtain on a lost trove of experimental electronic invention, taking in up-tempo synth jams (“Right Here, Right Now”), louche funk (“Breakdown”), lilting ambient miniatures (“Before Original Sin”) and forays into New Age (“Sea Of China”). Also available is an accompanying book – a poetic journal detailing Cowley’s many erotic escapades – which only intensifies the sense running through Mechanical Fantasy Box of a glimpse into a nocturnal private world.

Extras: 7/10. Liner notes; limited editions include book.