PATRICK COWLEY - Hardware 2LP

Cybernetic disco maestro Patrick Cowley graces us once again with Hard Ware, an LP of far-out funk and synthpop celebrating what would have been Cowley’s 75th birthday.

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, which the label chronicled on compilation albums School Daze, Muscle Up, and Afternooners.

Hard Ware presents the closing chapter in a trilogy of unreleased Cowley dancefloor bangers that began with 2022’s heavy-hitting Male Box and was continued with the soul and garage-inflected From Behind in 2024.

The most expansive release in said trilogy, Hard Ware delivers ten tracks of pure, uncut Cowley: sultry, psychedelic, sarcastic, and just a bit sleazy.

The record comes in a sleeve with a hand-airbrushed circuitboard-inspired design by Gwenaël Rattke, and includes lyrics as well as liner notes by Andrew Ryce and Peggy Gibbons.

Hard Ware is another crucial document of a tremendous talent taken too soon.