Next month, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem will release a retrospective double LP of disco pioneer Patrick Cowley entitled School Daze.
After moving to San Francisco in the early 70’s, Cowley enrolled in the City College of San Francisco where he founded the Electronic Music Lab and created what became known as The San Francisco Sound, his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music.
In 1981, after gaining notoriety as a composer, producer and remixer, Cowley founded Megatone Records and released his debut album. In the same year, he was invited to write music for the films of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. Cowley accepted and sent reels of his college compositions. Also at this time, Cowley had been hospitalized and diagnosed with a then-unknown illness, of which he passed away the following year. Only later did his illness become known as AIDS.
The upcoming release features a collection of Cowley’s instrumental songs recorded between 1973 and 1981 that were found in the Fox Studio. As the press release describes, “the songs on School Daze range from sparse proto- techno to high octane funk to somber post-punk to musique concrete, revealing the depth of Cowley’s unique talent.”
School Daze will be release on October 19th, when Cowley would have been 63 years old. All proceeds will be donated to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
The cosmic, hypnotic and groovy “Nightcrawler”, one of the gems off School Daze, is being offered as a first taste. Here it is.