Talk to me about Patrick Cowley's 'Menergy'

Also this, which entered my Pazz & Jop comments, because "Seven Sacred Pools" entered my singles list:

Holy moly, just listened to the Cowley. Some of those reviewers seem to be projecting from the press sheet: the music doesn't seem freaky in the let's-fist-again sense, although in the gen. sense that freaks=all us seekers, incl. hippies--yeah: especially the one that gets me up on my feet, dancing way past the point that the headphones come unplugged, and the volume somehow goes to max, and even the laptop speakers know how to sing it, and I'm dancing through beads and chimes with the love goddesses (and Andy Kaufman)---that would be "Seven Sacred Pools." At first, it seems like it's gonna be some filigree brushing by the ever-reliable textures of pulsation (as may happen too much on some tracks: like, just give me that beat cluster and hold the nerfy tweets). But it is 15 minutes and change, most of which seems so so necessary, in a laidback but fully involving way. Also the way he holds a keyboard whirlpool in place, presses, extends the shades---that would be "Tides of Man." (elsewhere, he can gradually meld the keys into really good jazz woodwinds, etc.) The title track, "School Daze" is quite the neon compact; guess I could see this as theme for porn, or a really sharp 70s science show.

― dow, Thursday, December 19, 2013 1:50 PM (1 month ago)

Great review dow, "Seven Sacred Pools" is amazing.

I was ready for porn music, then listened to the comp and was like "this doesn't really sound like porn music for the most part", then tracked down as much archival footage as I could find from the films, and got it.

This was my review btw:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18773-patrick-cowley-school-daze/

This is a great album and it isn't just some Caravaggio's sketchbook type curio, it is a great album.

Oh yeah totally excellent review Tim.

First two tracks, my impression was: 'this is all the music Throbbing Gristle was trying to make fun of with their disco singles that most people now prefer to the real TG music' and I nearly switched it off

By the end of the album my impression had skewed more towards 'what in the world is even happening'

Definitely worth hearing

Amen to that, and thanks, Tim, for complimenting my review and writing yours, which is very illuminating. The quote about 70s porn reminds me of what the jam band Particle called their "space-porn," which could get outrageously good live, and now I wonder if they had Cowley's music and the movies it soundtracked in mynd.

freaky in the let's-fist-again sense,

may I borrow this phrase?

Sure, I got it from Leather Nun: "I don't remember you/You don't remember me/But/Let's fist again/Let's fist again/Like we did last summer/Let's fist again."

Informative, if horrible geocities-esque, site on Cowley:

http://webs.advance.com.ar/dheinz/Patrick%20Cowley1.htm

So the graphic design isn't the only awful aspect of that site. However, there are some extraordinary revelations within – such as that Cowley was so sick by the time he made Mind Warp that he recorded most of it in a wheelchair.

To that end, "They Came at Night" from that record is an awesome thing.

'tides of man' off the reissue is really incredible, just the thing I wanted to hear on the weekend. going to try and rip it off so hard at next synth jam sesh.

Primordial Landscape popped onto my headphones yesterday and I hadn't realised how tense, sleazy and psychedelic it sounds. Like a dim-lit sexclub with the smell of amyl in the air (a good thing).

the patrick cowley and jorge socarras album "catholic" got a write-up in the latest issue of mojo. it sounds like cowleys cars/devo/new wave record. anyone heard it? im intrigued

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=31250

also: how many versions of this song are there, and which is this one:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x34ju8_patrick-cowley-sylvester-menergy-19_music

no idea how many versions there are but i think that version is from The Ultimate Collection, which discogs claims contains extended 12" versions but it's way too short for that

i've been listening to this like crazy the last couple of weeks.

http://www.discogs.com/Patrick-Cowley-Patrick-Cowleys-Greatest-Hits-Dance-Party/master/95775

Also the snippets of the film 'School Daze' available online feature a really drugged out instrumental version of "I Need Somebody To Love Tonight" which is not here but is awesome.

― Tim F, Saturday, November 2, 2013 10:03 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this song is great http://www.npr.org/2015/09/08/437596536/songs-we-love-patrick-cowley-somebody-to-love-tonight

YES. This is the ONE.

Basically the original on poppers.

Was wondering what mix I've heard that on, it's this one by Kaos & Sal P..

epochal mix, that kaos & sal p. one

Adore that mix but the version of the tune on there is the ordinary instrumental (still amazing mind).

You're right, I should've listened to the whole track. Fantastic. Love School Daze, will definitely get Muscle Up.

Working my way thru Muscle Up this morning and it is incredible. "Deep Inside You" has a heavy Göttsching vibe. "Somebody to Love Tonight" is such a slinky, throbbing head-bobber of a track. So fucking good.

yes this new reissue collection Muscle Up kills

also amazing- the spoken word b-side of the "Kickin' In" EP- I didn't write about that in my ranting review for the WIRE but I should have

Can't wait for my copy to get here. PSYCHED.

Apparently it's been delayed by a month... will ship sometime in November. Kind of PO'ed actually as I made a big order direct through the label with a bunch of other stuff in late September but none of it has shipped yet.

Oh wow, I heard Kickin' In on a mix other day, and I never thought I'd be able to ID it. Thanks ILM.

Muscle Up is amazing! You all already knew that but anyway.

Both these compilations are so... amazing.

They're really good.

The Candida Cosmica thing is less exciting but still worth hearing if you like old school bleeps n bloops.

School Daze was awesome, but with Muscle Up it felt like they were already scraping the bottom of the barrel, a couple of the tunes were very obvious demos, with a crappy sound and/or the vocals not yet recorded. I guess it's nice to have an instrumental version of "Somebody To Love Tonight", but it pales compared to the finished Sylvester version.

I dunno, I think of both of those albums as a single piece for some reason. Of course, I bought them within weeks of each other and listened to little else for the next few months. You didn't like "Deep Inside You??"

I really disliked the Candida Cosmica EP. Not because it was bad, but because it wasn't good, and, perhaps unfairly, I was expecting a lot more. I guess, for me, Muscle Up and School Daze set the bar pretty high

I can't remember the names of instrumental tracks, but I guess I worded that post a bit badly: I did like several of the tunes on Muscle Up, just not the ones that felt like they weren't completed. School Daze was such an amazing record, everything on it was so sublime and felt polished, so MU was a bit of disappointment compared to that. Also, SD had some amazing proto-trance tunes with hypnotic synth work, so particularly that one track on MU which sounds like a standard disco rhythm track with a missing lead voice/instrument felt too generic in comparison.

I'd still recommend both comps to everyone, it just that felt that they got all the diamonds for SD, and on MU they had to include lesser material too.

But yeah, I get it that might be different if you bought and listened to them as one work instead of waiting 2 years in between.

I'm listening again now to MU thanks to this thread, and I hear what you mean about some of these sounding unfinished. I'm coming at Cowley from a decidedly non-disco background, so I tend to gravitate less toward the bangers and more toward the stranger things on here, which may explain my unreserved embrace of it as a whole, including the things that sound like sketches.

I wonder how much is left in the archive, if anything? At this point I'd buy p much anything with his name on it

I'm sure I read there are a couple more volumes due.

The clunky 'demo' of STLT is charming. And there's nothing really like Deep Inside You, The Jungle Dream or Don't Ask on the first one. If anything overall I thought MU was a bit stronger, or I prefer the slightly more space music / kosmische tilt.

ditto

I've listened to the STLT demo approx. 10 times this week! It reminds me of some of the best Not Not Fun stuff.

"Kickin' In" still gets stuck in my head. Awesome awesome tune.

I adore the instrumental version of "Somebody To Love Tonight", but I suspect that's in part because I first experienced it in its original context rather than as a track on a compilation. The arrangement seems woozy and debauched rather than clunky when received through that lens.

In some ways I might even allow that to over-determine my experience of this music given it's not necessarily the case that these tracks were composed with a film soundtracking role in mind, but it makes everything feel much vibier to me.

Muscle Up can't really surprise in the way School Daze did if you'd already heard the latter, but otherwise I'm not sure I'd be able to say which is the stronger release.

I'm not sure who claimed the Muscle Up version of "Somebody To Love Tonight" is "clunky"? It's not one of the more rough-sounding tracks on MU, but since I heard and fell in love with the Sylvester version years before this one, it just feels like something is missing. TBH I have the same feeling with most instrumental versions of disco tunes, unless they're proper dub versions with some extra tricks and gimmicks.

But I can imagine that hearing it on the soundtrack of the porn movie where Cowley intended it to be used is different. A lot of soundtracks leave me similarly cold if I haven't seen the movie, feels like part of the narrative isn't there.

i find most songs sound better if i'm watching porn while i'm listening to them

Note how carefully worded my last post was = I was on the office.

lol narrative

Kickin in, kickin in
Doo doo do-do doooooo

-oooh

OTM