{"product_id":"patrick-cowley-hard-ware","title":"Patrick Cowley - Hard Ware","description":"\u003cp\u003eBest 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eHard Ware\u003c\/em\u003e 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, \u003cem\u003eHard Ware \u003c\/em\u003edelivers ten tracks of pure, uncut Cowley: sultry, psychedelic, sarcastic, and just a bit sleazy. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCowley devotees will delight in “Tech-No,” a sparse instrumental demo version of his epically dystopian “Tech-No-Logical World.” You could soundtrack your next aerobics session with cheeky numbers like “Pajama Party Massacre” or “Shake It Up,” both of which feature Cowley himself on vocals. The frenetic “Big Ass in Motion” is built around samples from Rudy Ray Moore and The Madam’s infamous “Sensuous Black Woman,” an X-rated comedy record that would later feature in classic booty house records. Mid-tempo cosmic groovers are well-represented with jams like “Hellfire” and “Megablue,” which perfectly capture Cowley’s bathhouse-in-outerspace sensibilities. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo collection of Cowley’s work would be complete without an interstellar floor-filler, and we’ve got quite a few here, like “Jungle Jump,” which pits whirling beats with dub-laced swirls of synth, or “Spellbinding Lover,” a Donna Summer-indebted melancholic boogie masterpiece that features Sylvester backup singer Jeanie Tracy. \u003cem\u003eHard Ware\u003c\/em\u003e closes with the chilling synth-hymn ”Ice Age,” in which Loverde vocalist, Peggy Gibbons, sings of a coming frosty apocalypse. The story told in “Ice Age” mirrors the coming AIDS crisis and feels like a haunting premonition from Cowley. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eHard Ware\u003c\/em\u003e is another crucial document of a tremendous talent taken too soon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DARK ENTRIES","offers":[{"title":"Black 2LP","offer_id":53021725622614,"sku":"MRM-02539","price":41.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1000\/6088\/9430\/files\/c36981d10f0c6114ca2da8e23341ece8.jpg?v=1775200216","url":"https:\/\/monorailmusic.com\/products\/patrick-cowley-hard-ware","provider":"Monorail Music","version":"1.0","type":"link"}