Deep Entries Volume 2: Gay Electronic Excursions 1981-1993

It’s time once again for Dark Entries to get deep. One of the label’s most important missions has been to illuminate neglected facets of gay musical history, as seen on its archival works by Patrick Cowley, Sylvester and Man Parrish, as well as the Deep Entries compilation series. Deep Entries Volume 2: Gay Electronic Excursions 1981-1993 features ten cuts of gay analogue bliss. Like the first edition, the material careens from campy to confrontational, from ecstatic to bleak, and is always resolutely queer.

Highlights range from Joseph Victor Sieger’s brooding ode to cruising spaces, “San Francisco (You’ve Got Me Hard)”, and The Toy Shop’s sultry electrowave “Exploit My Sexuality”, to Borghesia’s angular funk and Xotika’s hi-NRG anthem “Forever Gay”. Patrick Cowley collaborator Paul Parker produces Shawn Benson’s previously unreleased 1985 electrofunk cut “Closer”, while Almodóvar and McNamara contribute the decadent punk-funk of “Suck It To Me”.

Richard Bone brings an unreleased demo of “The Real Swing”; Keeler’s “Shy” offers introspective electronics; and Age of Consent close the compilation with their haunting ARP 2600-led cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” from 1981. The spectre of HIV/AIDS runs through these recordings, preserving the work and lives of artists whose contributions deserve to be heard.