School Daze

Earlier this year, San Francisco-based label Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem released a seminal collection of Patrick Cowley tracks as the double LP School Daze. Just named Juno's #1 re-issue of 2013, the collection, comprised of tracks that were originally meant for usage in the films of gay porn company Fox Studio, highlights the most innovative and forward thinking sounds of the disco legend.

Clocking in at just over 80 minutes, the compilation was too large to fit on CD format. However, Dark Entries here releases a CD version that features all of the tracks minus the shortest track, Pagan Rhythms.

Perhaps one of the most revolutionary and influential people in the canon of disco music, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music coined ''The San Francisco Sound.''

Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco at the age of 21. He studied at the City College of San Francisco where he founded the Electronic Music Lab. During this time Patrick created radio jingles and electronic pieces using the school's equipment, first a Putney, then an E-MU System and finally a Serge synthesizer. He made experimental instrumental songs by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer.

By the mid-70's, Patrick's synthesizer skills landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco superstar Sylvester such as You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), Dance Disco Heat and Stars. This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. Of particular note was his 18-minute long remix of Donna Summer's I Feel Love and production work with edgy New Wave band Indoor Life. By 1981 Patrick released a string of dance 12'' singles, like Menergy and Megatron Man, creating the soundtrack for a generation. Also that year, he founded Megatone Records and released his debut album. Around this time Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with a then-unknown illness that would later be called AIDS. Prior to his passing on November 12, 1982, he recorded two more Hi-NRG hits, Do You Wanna Funk for Sylvester and Right On Target for Paul Parker.

In 1981 Patrick was contacted by John Coletti, the owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. John had heard about Patrick's music from the legendary Sylvester and proposed he write music for his films. Patrick jumped on this offer and sent reels of his college compositions from the 70s to John in L.A. Coletti then used a variable speed oscillator to adjust the pitch and speed of Patrick's songs in-sync with the film scene. School Daze is a collection of Cowley's instrumental songs recorded between 1973 and 1981 found in the Fox Studio vaults. Influenced by Tomita, Wendy Carlos and Giorgio Moroder, Patrick forged an electronic sound from his collection of synthesizers, modified guitars and self-constructed equipment. The listener enters a world of dark forbidden vices, introspective and reflective of Patrick's time spent in the bathhouses of San Francisco. 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.

Featuring over 80 minutes of music, this compilation contains soundtrack music from two Fox Studio films, Muscle Up and School Daze. The tapes were restored and transferred using the same speed and pitch settings, then remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA.

For Patrick's 63rd birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem present a glimpse into the instrumental world of a young genius. These recordings shine a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon.