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Dark Entries is humbled to continue digging through the archives of legendary producer Patrick Cowley. While best known for his production on chart-topping cybernetic disco anthems such as Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” or his own “Menergy”, Cowley, who passed away from AIDS-related illness in 1982, left us with a substantial body of work. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley’s friends and family to shed light on the lesser known facets of this singular artist’s output. This has resulted in a string of celebrated archival albums, including Catholic (featuring Jorge Socarras), School Daze, Muscle Up, Afternooners, and the recent Mechanical Fantasy Box. Some Funkettes, the latest addition to this series, is a collection of previously unreleased cover songs recorded from 1975-1977. These raw, unembellished tributes both showcase Cowley’s early musical interests and chart the development of his production techniques.

Some Funkettes opens with Cowley’s sauntering instrumental rendition of “Do It Anyway You Wanna”, the disco classic by People’s Choice. Next is a psychedelic reworking of the Temptations’ “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, here hazily retitled “Papa Wuzza Rollinston”. Over its 7 minute runtime, the track’s metronomic, minimal groove builds to a frantic synth solo - this is pure Bay Area motorik. “Spiked Punch”, a curious riff on Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” follows. Cowley’s lurching, minimalist reimagining of Hancock’s opus prefigures the work he would later do on Sylvester’s masterpiece “I Need Somebody to Love Tonight”. Side B opens with a truly important historical document: Cowley’s cover of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”. The Moroder-produced disco anthem was a critical influence on Cowley - he would later resculpt the original song into arguably its highest form with his 15-minute-long remix. The instrumental cover version here is sparse and euphoric, brimming with classic Cowley synth signatures alongside the infectious Moroder bassline. A relatively faithful take on Bazuka’s 1975 funk classic “Dynomite” follows. The record closes with the dub version of “Spiked Punch”, which highlights developments in Cowley’s recording and synthesis techniques by way of its resonant burbles and spring reverb-laden passages.

Some Funkettes was made possible with help from Patrick's brother Jim and his former studiomate Maurice Tani. All songs were mastered for vinyl by George Horn. The sleeve is a collage designed in 1975 by Cowley’s former roommate Francesca Rosa that was found covering a reel to reel box. It features a yin-yang symbol and a photograph of a scruffy 24 year old Patrick, to which we added his original handwriting. Each record comes with an insert featuring a four page essay by Francesca as well as a postcard featuring liner notes and a photograph by Cowley’s roommate and best friend, Theresa McGinley. Vocal versions of “Papa Wuzza Rollingston” and “Do It Anyway You Wanna” are included as bonus tracks on the digital and CD releases. This peek into Cowley’s formative years arrives just in time for what would have been his 70th birthday.

Doing everything they can to pull you out of that groundhog day slump, House of Disco draft in Sound Support, a new project from Dam Swindle’s Lars Dales and long-time collaborator Lorenz Rhode, to work their wonders.

‘Clavi On The Rocks’ is all about the keys. From the emotive chords to the goosebump-giving basslines and Stevie-in-space clavinet mastery, it’s an electro-boogie whirlwind sure to give a hyperboost to any misfiring start to the year.

Next up, ‘Thesaurus Sex’ is some serious sci-fi through your hi-fi, melding punchy bass synths with funked-out stabs, soaring synthwork and a roaming-robo vox.

Piloting over to the B side, ‘Super Elevation’ hits with modulating acidic arps, hard-hitting bass rumbles and galactic melodies before taking you into another dimension with the kind of eyes closed, classic pianos that will reignite the optimism in any wavering heart.

Closing it out, ‘Enduro’ has Sound Support laying vintage loops under buzzed-out basslines and that sure-fire clav goodness, over-driven into the high heavens. Add in a healthy dose of echoing keys, fizzing toplines and space echo claps and it’s closer of epic proportions.

Bent is one of the most seminal 90s duos in all of electronic music. After more than a decade and a half out of the game, the quirky outfit is back and has a whole album's worth of new music ready to go. First though, we're treated to this new package of remixes of one of their singles. Enduring UK champ Ashley Beedle goes first with a nice groove that captures lazy afternoon summer vibes perfectly. As you'd expect, Crazy P layer in cosmic rays of melody while the ever excellent Nail goes for a rollin deep house version with ear worm pads and vocals. The Somethin' Sanctified mix is for when you head indoors and begin to get down on the 'floor.

BEST005 begins with “Time of Lovers”, a delicate house take based on Japanese chopped samples. A2 is the very energetic and funky “Untitled (Versione Veloce)”, turning a synthpop song into a fast ghetto house tune. B-side continues the ghetto feeling (but with a romantic r’n’b touch) with “Ankileichen Part 1”, then goes dirty with “Soul Mayo”, a mix between jazzy piano riffs and hard beats. Last track “Baerdz” gives a deep and subtle end to the EP, with harp glissandi invoquing bird flight. As always with the label, some funky locked grooves complete this limited vinyl only release, mastered & cut by legendary Simon Davey from The Exchange.

Hot on the heels of what is proving to be one of the EP’s of the year in Funk Purpose Volume 3 Samosa Records keep their 2020 heat going with everyone’s favourite work-a-holic Greek disco missionary C.Da Afro.

He’s a producer with disco and house flowing through his veins and is back with another monster of an EP here.

Featuring three tracks of divine disco infused with sultry Latin flavours it’s a beautifully balanced release. First up is the eponymous title track in Afro-Disiac. This one is deep groove and brass heavy house. The expressive bass groove lays the foundation for some stellar brass stabs and solos galore with some wonderful guitar licks keeping the track fresh and funky through-out. It’s a track for those wonderfully warm summers’ days when we have nothing more to worry about than to dance in the Ibizan sun.

Next up is Smoothie a deeper but no less groove infused track. Again packed to the hilt with some wonderful brass work, it’s another Latin edged track with a hooky vocal which grabs you by the scruff of the neck and bounces you all the way to the middle of the throng on the dance-floor. Solid percussion work keeps the energy levels deceptively high here. A seriously smooth track indeed!

Closing the EP out co-label boss De Gama goes to work on the edit of Brazilian Groove. This one is a track which originally popped up on C.Da Afro’s Expresso EP on Samosa a year ago and went on to be a huge DJ favourite across the rest of the year. Giving it a slightly tougher feel De Gama has kept all the best moments of the original intact adding in extra percussion and a heavier kit to take it straight to the main room. A solid rework which will give this one strong legs to see it through another year.

A wonderful EP all round yet again for both Samosa and C.Da Afro and another one that is going to fly when it hits the shelves so make sure you get on that pre-order sharpish.

Support from Kevin Cutts, Bruno Bolla, Jaegerossa, Chuggin Edits, Leo Mas, 80's Child, Luca Moplen, Andy Williams (Midnight Riot Records), Simon Hodge (BBC Radio 6), DJ Supermarkt (Too Slow To Disco), Fingermann, DJ Rocca, Get Down Edits (Darren Daz Dalton), Jacques Renault, Nice 7, Dj Severino (Horse Meat Disco), C. Da Afro, and Les Inferno-

New Chico Mann remix single ahead of his forthcoming full length album 'Magical Thinking' !
Featuring the sultry vocals of New York based Kendra Morris, the slinky and catchy album version of 'Same Old Clown' is joined here by deeper re-workings from USA DJ and re-edit king Kon (Kon & Amir, Nitetime), who provides both a vocal and dub remix as well as UK producer Linkwood, known in underground circles for his groundbreaking mix of future-boogie, house and detroit techno on Scotland's excellent Firecracker Recordings imprint.
Guitarist with the band Antibalas, multi instrumentalist and guitarist, Chico Mann (AKA Marcos Garcia) has in the past worked with the likes of TV On The Radio, The Roots and Dam Funk as well as remixing Little Dragon and Alice Russell amongst others.

New Zealand DJ collective 'Flamingo Pier' return to Soundway Records with their "Indigo EP". Their previous release, the eponymous Flamingo Pier EP in February 2019, was the beginning of their relationship with Soundway, garnering support from industry peers including Gilles Peterson, Tim Sweeney (Beats In Space), The Black Madonna, Gideon Coe, The Wire magazine, JD Twitch and more.

Drawing inspiration again from cosmic disco, Afro-house and and Italo - Luke, Brad and Dominic hone their craft further on the Indigo EP with tight percussion, balanced arrangements and hardhitting grooves. The EP was recorded in Auckland and London over the course of 2019, with additional contributions from local New Zealand collaborators: percussionist Isaac Chadderton and brass player Finn Scholes.

Jamwax, in conjunction with Happy Milf Records, are proud to re-release the Nigerian boogie / synth-funk bomb, Hotline's 'You Are Mine'. This six-shooter packs no duds.

Exclusively licensed from the band. 'You Are Mine' was recorded at Decca studios in Lagos, in 1986. This edition is remastered and comes with liner notes and exclusive photos from Hotline's personal archive.

Soundway present a slice of raw Trinidad carnival roots with a progressive twist, courtesy of one of the islands most original and forward thinking musical minds of the post war period. On the flip highlife-techno pioneer DrumTalk morphs it into a dark and twisted electro-tropical groove dripping with rolling distorted synth-lines and filtered vocals.

British flavor for this brand new 7" from Legofunk Records with
an impressive action! Poetry edit over the epic music…

After some inaugural heat from Hamburg, we catch up with our man from Saint-Ouen for Drum Chums Vol. 2!

As far as Percussion Pals go, Plastic Bamboo has the highest credentials.
Not only did he spend a decade behind the drum kit, but he was my flatmate for a few happy years in Manchester. Since relocating to Paris in 2012, he's played sets all over Europe, worked the scalpel with the Good Plus crew and secured a second dan black belt in digging.
Let's see what the prince of Les Puces has in store for us...

On the A1, Plastic Bamboo double doses an unknown new beat 7" extending the Arabic acid delight for a six minute soak. Properly peaking and packed with Middle Eastern flava, 'Ra Beat' is primed for dance floor demolition.
The Frenchman swaps the Arabic coffee for an Italian cocktail on the A2's 'Bertini', sticking an extra large umbrella in the frothiest of disco winners.

'Kamboja' offers a chance to catch your breath on the B1, bringing Balearic boogie with the upmost emotion and a melody you'll never forget.
We end the set in a peak time mode via the mysterious 'Forest Dance', a witches brew of dark disco and new beat stomp with just a hint of that techno-tropical flavour the Talking Drums love.

Bon soir et bisous.

It’s been another golden year for Samosa with a consistent stream of ridiculously tasty releases from some of the hottest talent in the game. Following on from their afrocentric Souldynamic and C. da Afro releases for their latest edition Volume 19 they have drafted in the seriously hot Mexican producer The Funk District who delivers a stunning four track release.

This is a real tour-de-force of an EP covering afro, groove heavy energy packed funk, Latin Disco and classic 70’s film score-esque looped up disco.

Leading off with ‘Congalizer’ it’s the perfect track to follow the last two Samosa EP’s again returning to Africa’s golden shores. It’s a track packed with energy and real dancefloor verve. Featuring a frantic guitar line front and centre it’s a track which is a in a real hurry to drag you straight to the middle of the increasingly rapturous Samosa Records dancefloor. Expect super tight editing here as The Funk District builds the track through a series of ass shaking loops which perfectly jousts back and forward with a brilliant vocal.

‘Heaven is Gonna fall’ is another track which sets off at a breakneck pace. Super funky brass stabs, echo packed guitar riffs and energetic percussion underpin another stand out vocal. This is another surefire dancefloor track. Pop it on and watch your club erupt.

Over on the flip ‘La Rapina’ is straight Latin dancefloor gold. Infused with all that is great with 70’s underground disco you can expect string stabs, a monster bassline and shimmering brass whilst the Cuba extolling vocal turns the heat up considerably.

Seeing us off in fine style is ‘No Worries featuring Dr Disco’. It’s a loop heavy slice of hip shaking disco groove. With breakdowns aplenty it builds into a fierce guitar solo which it’s safe to say will stand out wherever you play it.

In SMS019 The Funk District have mined the worlds disco vaults and turned in an EP which is both exciting and impossible not to completely lose yourself in. Make sure you jump on this one right now as the Samosa express continues its non stop journey straight to the heart of the dancefloor.

Classic funk / soul LP from 1977 repressed by Unidisc, Canada for 2021.

Nova Onda are back with a brand new 7inch with two new Brazilian Disco Boogie House tunes.
"Onda" is a dope Boogie slice activated by a hot bassline and gorgeous horns session with a female vocal for warming up under the sunset of Ipanema.
On the second side for starting the day in a good mood, you will find "Sabe Como Faz" a Funky bass cuica mid-tempo.

It’s been a rollercoaster of a launch for Daje Funk records, a brand new limited 7” imprint which popped out of nowhere in 2019. Their first two releases, which dropped in quick succession, were nothing short of stellar with huge edits coming from Les Inferno, De Gama, Massimo Berardi & The Funk District. All were well received both critically and by the DJ community with support from some of the best selectors out there including Moplen, Fingerman, Jacques Renault and Lego Edit.

You will be pleased to know that DFR003 is just as ridiculously funky pairing up edits from Italian super producer DJ Rocca and another duo of seriously hot Italians Dirtyelements & Drunkdrivers.

DJ Rocca, who surely must be one of the busiest producers on the scene, kicks off proceedings with his supremely tight edit of Crew SDR’s ‘Don't Give Up’. This one is feel-good party funk all the way, designed first and foremost for the dance-floor. Building the groove with some great drum programming, jazzy keys and a hip shaker of a bassline, it hooks you straight away before setting things properly alight when the Saxophone kicks in. Changes galore keep the attention and the dance-floor moving. A wonderful track!

Flipping over Dirtyelements & Drunkdrivers go to town on Fat B’s ‘Keep It coming’. Bringing in some of the funkiest elements from The Fatback Band’s Bus Stop, it’s a ripping 6 minutes of pure dance-floor joy. The bassline and horns tear up the soundsystem as the looped up vocals merge perfectly with some sublime keys to give the track a dubbed out but hugely energetic disco-funk feel.

DJF003 is another release packed with serious quality. Make sure you grab it quick as this one will fly out of the door.

Parasols (Ali Renault) applies ABS to the bpm with the new beat friendly ‘Diaz’; a slasher disco stalker prowling the lower east side of somewhere deep in your residual nightmares. Red Corner thwacks hard and dusky like a dustbin full of grit. Now your as giddy as the time you had your first bucket. The mutated commentary that underpins this clash of pans melts woozily into ‘Sacrifice’, which comes on all Baldelli inspired like some Rimini horror fest where Benetton and Timberlands frug it out amongst shadows in the Mediterranean dusk. Bursting with energy the finalimente of this accomplished brace of toons is possibly the standout, ‘Cessana Learning’ leers and lurches with weird gut belches that are both melodic and disorienting at the same time; shifting gears midpoint into some glorious electro chimes that will strike a chord with fans of other post techno luminaries such Ed DMX. Get some of this, enjoy flagellate and try to stay conscious!

Red Vinyl

As part of a 35 Year anniversary celebration of their debut album London Records are releasing the recent remixes by Dimitri From Paris and Cerrone of their huge hit “She Drives Me Crazy’ on coloured vinyl exclusively for RSD.
Including the classic track remastered plus legendary French DJ Cerrone takes the original to dancefloor. Dimitri’s giddy assault of ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ plunders sounds from pop, house, disco, and late-80s hip hop. "

Last autumn Leng Records welcomed a new name to the roster, Greek DJ/producer Lex, via some warming and colourful tracks on the label’s 10th Anniversary LP and sampler EP. Now the Athenian has returned with his first full release for Paul Murphy and Simon Purnell’s popular imprint.



Real name Alex Andrikopoulos, Lex first rose to prominence in his home city of Athens when he ran the Radical Soundz record shop during the first decade of the millennium. More recently his reputation has spread worldwide thanks to his association with Leng, a recent 12” on B2 Recordings and DJ sets that frequently join the dots between disco, house and techno.



His first full EP for Leng is arguably his most musically expansive collection of tracks to date, with a swathe of guest players – keyboardist Artis Boriss and drummer/percussionist Harold Perez most prominently – swinging by to help bring Lex’s vivid musical visions to life.



For proof, check out lead cut ‘Punta Allen’, an eight-minute chunk of organic dancefloor goodness in which Lex and his musical associates layer steel pan style melodies, spacey synthesizer flourishes, eyes-closed electric piano solos, warming chords and jangling guitars atop a heady bass guitar line, unfussy drums and sweaty pots-and-pans percussion. The track’s effortless evolution, which slowly unfurls before rising towards a gorgeous and joyous conclusion, is testament to the Greek producer’s dancefloor instincts.



You’ll find more low-slung, dub disco-influenced bass on the exotic ‘The Jamail Pass’, where mazy and feverish organ solos and rolling hand percussion provide a platform for Paqua member Alex Searle’s Nile Rodgers style guitar sounds. The track’s inherent funk – emphasized by occasional bass guitar solos and fills, as well as some tumbling synth sounds – is apparent throughout the track, something that only adds to its smile-inducing allure.



Closing out a very impressive first EP on Leng is ‘Angels of Rhythm’, a hazier, faster and more intergalactic excursion that cannily combines the low-slung bass of dub disco with the intoxicating vibes and warming dreaminess of deep house. The track’s intoxicating late-night feel is partly due to an undecidedly cosmic spoken word vocal from sassy singer Harrier Summer, though Artis Boriss’ pitch-bend-sporting synth solos and fizzing electronic noises certainly help. Driving but also deep and groovy, ‘Angels of Rhythm’ offers a memorable conclusion to a very impressive EP.

Ater a strong start from Haners, the second drop on Misadventures steps once again into the neon-lit alleyway of finest Italo disco, with all the seductive sass you could ever wish for in a party 12". On the A side, 'Aargh Money' works around a seriously funked-up rhythm section and a choir extolling the virtues of working together. It's bombastic and elastic, just the right thing to get the limbs greased up for a heated hoedown. 'Little Looks' takes things rougher and tougher, with one of those Italo basslines so nasty it borders on proto-acid. The vocals are divine here too - smouldering come hither lines that amp up the intensity of the track to 11