DEEP ENTRIES 2: GAY ELECTRONIC EXCURSIONS 1981-1993 | VINYL RECORD (LP)

It's time once again for Dark Entries to get deep. One of Dark Entries' most important missions has been to illuminate neglected facets of gay musical history, as seen on the label's crucial archival works by Patrick Cowley, Sylvester, and Man Parrish, as well as the Deep Entries compilation series. Deep Entries Vol. 2: Gay Electronic Excursions 1981-1993 features ten cuts of gay analog bliss. Like the first edition, the material here careens from campy to confrontational, from ecstatic to bleak, and is always resolutely queer. Things kick off with "San Francisco (You've Got Me Hard)," Joseph Victor Siegel's broodingly sexy ode to cruising spaces. Hopping the pond to England, we're treated to The Toy Shop's "Exploit My Sexuality," a sultry electrowave number. Dark Entries veterans Borghesia flex their angular-yet-funky ex-Yugoslavian-wave with "Pokušaj." New York-based Xotica's hi-NRG anthem "Forever Gay" will grease up the next popper-scented dancefloor you're on. Things take a melancholic turn with Hans Wittstatt's "Flying Gay," the haunting soundtrack from 1980 German gay cult film Taxi Zlum Klo. Patrick Cowley collaborator Paul Parker produces Shawn Benson's "Closer," a previously unreleased and utterly impeccable slice of electrofunk from 1985. Legendary Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar appears on Almodóvar & McNamara's "Suck it to Me," a decadent punk-funk number that sounds like Arthur Russell on too much cocaine (in the best possible way). Cult American synth icon Richard Bone brings us an unreleased demo version of "The Real Swing." Keeler's "Shy" brings us introspective queerness with a dash of Laurie Anderson-esque poetics. Age of Consent close the record with their utterly harrowing isolationist ARP 2600-led cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" from 1981. The spectre of HIV/AIDS can be felt on these ten tracks; Xotica, Shawn Benson, Hans Wittstat, and Keeler would all die of complications from the disease. Gwennael Rattke designed the cover for Deep Entries Vol. 2, and it comes with a fold-out poster including lyrics and photos of the artists. Deep Entries Vol. 2 will be released the first week of December in honor of World AIDS Day.