Taking Sides: Patrick Cowley vs Arthur Russell

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more details on that unreleased cowley project: this will be fantastic, right?

willem, Friday, 17 July 2009 08:00 (fourteen years ago) link

pretty exciting. this makes it sound like it's got some of his Indoor Life stuff: will be a shock for Patrick Cowley's fans. It's way beyond his Hi NRG Disco stuff - a post-punk, new wave, experimental Cowley.

bong hitzvah (jaxon), Friday, 17 July 2009 18:26 (fourteen years ago) link

this crowley guy sounds interesting, nice thread!

I'm a Matt...I'm a DC (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 17 July 2009 18:54 (fourteen years ago) link

i really like that stuff too, i've been calling it garage or proto-house. i would say, besides boyd jarvis/timmy regisford/tony humphreys/eric matthews, the other guy who did lots of big records in that vein is paul simpson.

should this stuff have a thread of its own?

one time, Saturday, 18 July 2009 03:05 (fourteen years ago) link

I just shoehorn this stuff into boogie. I kind of like the ambiguity of the genre, I don't think there is any constructive reason for segregating this stuff from the rest of the post-disco R&B stuff.

This is my favorite Paul Simpson joint:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cijl3Y1HQNE

I used to play the hell out of this record at my old residency. Streetwise Records was a goldmine of wonderful music.

your original display name is still visible (Display Name), Saturday, 18 July 2009 04:01 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah but stuff like serious intention "you don't know" is pretty much house, no? doesn't seem too much like r&b or boogie to me. either way, it's great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcW5c6nG5PY

one time, Saturday, 18 July 2009 04:13 (fourteen years ago) link

Paul Simpson did this great edit of Patti Labelle's Shy. Its sooo cheesy but so great.

Ecchi Sketch, Saturday, 18 July 2009 05:43 (fourteen years ago) link

Considering that its a dub mix of a Gamble and Huff penned song, I guess its pretty much house too.

Ecchi Sketch, Saturday, 18 July 2009 05:49 (fourteen years ago) link

And you also get stuff like Set It Off By Strafe, Music Is The Answer by Colonel Abrahms or All Played Out by L.I.F.E. or any other number of records that have the jack clap pattern before 1986. The ambiguity of black American DJ records between disco and house is the whole beauty of that period of music. As much as I love the old Chicago stuff, I love the fact that the Roland drum machine at 120-127bpm formula didn't apply yet.

If you REALLY need to put a label on this stuff so that you can pay inflated prices at curated record stores, go for it. When I play this stuff it gets mixed into all the other DJ records of the era and I don't need it to be in strict category. The idea of playing this stuff exclusively as a genre seems to miss the point of these records. You should be playing them with disco, italo, electro, boogie, classic house Ect. The whole point is that it isn't house yet, it isn't the formula that will dominate clubland for the next 20+ years. It was an era of flux and it's position within a set should reflect that.

your original display name is still visible (Display Name), Saturday, 18 July 2009 06:03 (fourteen years ago) link

I'm quite happy buying this stuff on the cheap, but I live in a section of the Midwest thats got very little use for dance music from this era (Wisconsin). So I buy everything on the cheap really, if I was in Chicago this stuff would be so much more expensive I wouldn't even bother.

Ecchi Sketch, Saturday, 18 July 2009 06:12 (fourteen years ago) link

one time-- a new thread for this stuff would not be amiss. No one's really talking about Russell or Cowley anymore and there's definitely a lot more to be said. (someone else start it, though, I'm not personally knowledgeable enough to frame it)

sciolism, Saturday, 18 July 2009 06:30 (fourteen years ago) link

i <3 patrick cowley and have a couple of the proto house boogie electro italo tracks mentioned, but can someone curate a ysi? plz? i'll be checking leonardo.

artdamages, Saturday, 18 July 2009 14:58 (fourteen years ago) link

What a weird comparison to even make (the original premise of this thread). . . I don't get the basis of comparison.

Soundslike, Saturday, 18 July 2009 16:31 (fourteen years ago) link

I just went to start a new thread but instead somebody should revive one of these:

The post-disco pre-house clubbing scene

this is the proto-house youtube thread

dan selzer, Saturday, 18 July 2009 16:54 (fourteen years ago) link

i second sciolism, selzer and pappawheelie should get together and write a book/ set up a site/ make a dvd about all the post-disco musics

NI, Sunday, 19 July 2009 13:38 (fourteen years ago) link

selzer and pappawheelie spent a few years trying to educate the masses in disco/post-disco musics and it only ended in drunken fights at 3 am in a williamsburg bar that smelled like cheese.

http://www.myspace.com/caponesbeatclub

dan selzer, Sunday, 19 July 2009 14:50 (fourteen years ago) link

Morgan Geist's "radio show" (the later volumes are more like mixtapes, just music) for the "Red Bull Music Academy" (I don't think I need to point out the irony there) lean pretty heavily on this era. Volume 2 of the series even contains an interview with Steve Knutson of Audika Records, which put out all those great Arthur Russell resissues, so you know you want to listen to that!

"Personal" w/Morgan Geist

Personal w/Morgan Geist

uncannydan, Sunday, 19 July 2009 15:22 (fourteen years ago) link

xpost, ah no way! would have loved to have checked out your night, you've both introduced me, and no doubt many others, to countless awesome songs and genres over the years on here

NI, Sunday, 19 July 2009 20:05 (fourteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

anyone heard anything from this catholic record yet? ive been hammering indoor life recently so was hoping for something in a similar vein

straightola, Monday, 10 August 2009 22:11 (fourteen years ago) link

one month passes...

streaming on myspace. "i never want to fall in love" goofy - good goofy! "i'll come see you" reminds me a bit of ruth and grauzone. awesome. "soon" is downloadable at rcrd_lbl.

willem, Thursday, 10 September 2009 22:33 (fourteen years ago) link

well. simultaneous thread revive :)

willem, Thursday, 10 September 2009 22:34 (fourteen years ago) link

if by simultaneous you mean 8 minutes before you ;)

jaxon, Thursday, 10 September 2009 22:39 (fourteen years ago) link

:)
(i let those two songs play while i waited to hit "submit post")

willem, Thursday, 10 September 2009 22:45 (fourteen years ago) link

five months pass...

"Dance, Dance, Dance, by Marta Acuna is my favorite disco track ever."

I think I may have listened to this song 5 times on repeat today.
What a beauty. I know I may sound hyperbolic but tonight this seems like the perfect song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jzRwxdwK90

oscar, Sunday, 21 February 2010 03:35 (fourteen years ago) link


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