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CURRENT AFFAIRS

PUBLISHER
Dark Entries Editions

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 8 x 6 in. / 128 pgs / 4 color / 32 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2020 p. 82   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781942884545 TRADE
List Price: $24.95 CDN $34.95 GBP £22.00

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

TERRITORY
WORLD

THE SPRING 2024 ARTBOOK | D.A.P. CATALOG

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DARK ENTRIES EDITIONS

Mechanical Fantasy Box

The Homoerotic Journal of Patrick Cowley

Introduction by Jorge Socarras. Foreword by Theresa McGinley. Preface by Josh Cheon. Illustrations by Gwenaël Rattke.

Mechanical Fantasy Box

Chronicles of sex and disco in ’70s San Francisco, from the revolutionary musician behind “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”

Patrick Cowley (1950–82) was one of the most revolutionary and influential figures in electronic dance music. Born in Buffalo, Cowley moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study music at the City College of San Francisco. By the mid '70s, his synthesizer techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco diva Sylvester, including hits such as "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)." Cowley created his own brand of peak-time party music known as Hi-NRG, dubbed "the San Francisco Sound." His life was cut short on November 12, 1982, when he died shortly after his 32nd birthday from AIDS-related illness.

Mechanical Fantasy Box is Cowley's homoerotic journal, or, as he called it, "graphic accounts of one man's sex life." The journal begins in 1974 and ends in 1980 on his 30th birthday. It chronicles his slow rise to fame from lighting technician at the City Disco to crafting his ground-breaking 16-minute remix of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" to performing with Sylvester at the SF Opera House. Vivid descriptions are told of cruising in '70s SoMA sex venues, ecstatic highs in Buena Vista Park and composing "pornophonics" in his Castro apartment. For this book, artist Gwenaël Rattke created 25 original illustrations inspired by selected entries, three street maps documenting locations mentioned herein, and four collages of photos, ephemera and notes that Cowley had inserted in the journal. This book shows a very out-front, alive person going through the throes of gay liberation post-Stonewall.


Featured image is reproduced from 'Mechanical Fantasy Box.'

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

XLR8R

The entries are introspective and show a very out-front, alive person going through the throes of gay liberation.

Fact

Henry Bruce-Jones

Featuring early explorations into funk, ambient and more abstract, psychedelic fare, the tracks selected showcase Cowley at his most experimental.

DJ

Amy Fielding

Dark Entries has overseen a number of reissues from the late producer,... [but] the announcement follows the discovery of 40 reels of unheard music produced by Patrick Cowley in an attic.

Vinyl Factory

Mechanical Fantasy Box features 13 previously unreleased songs and takes its name from Cowley’s intimate journal.

Pitchfork

Evan Minsker

The disco and electronic music icon [Patrick Cowley's] Mechanical Fantasy Box is being released [with] a book collecting his erotic journals.

Pitchfork

Rich Juzwiack

The rare opportunity to hear directly from Cowley... Patrick Cowley’s sex journal is a voraciously readable historical document, a seminal text in every possible manner of the phrase.

New Statesman

Jude Rogers

In its X-rated recollections, [Mechanical Fantasy Box] lays bare how the rise of LGBTQ culture after Stonewall liberated Cowley and many others, enabling new forms of expression, sexually and creatively, of their real identities.

Crack

Vivian Yeung

[Mechanical Fantasy Box] contains 13 previously unreleased tracks by Hi-NRG pioneer Patrick Cowley, created between 1973-80. Accompanying the release is the producer’s very own journal... Beyond music, he recounts his experiences cruising in SoMa’s sex venues in the 70s, and tales of sexual liberation.

Mechanical Fantasy Box

STATUS: Out of stock

Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/27/2021

Celebrating Gay Pride with 'Mechanical Fantasy Box: The Homoerotic Journal of Patrick Cowley'

Celebrating Gay Pride with 'Mechanical Fantasy Box: The Homoerotic Journal of Patrick Cowley'

Featured image is reproduced from Mechanical Fantasy Box, a Staff Pick for Pride Weekend 2021. Collecting electronic dance music legend Patrick Cowley's homoerotic journal entries, 1974–1980 (he died of AIDS-related illness in 1982), this volume can be seen as an historic document, offering an unfiltered glimpse into San Francisco's hardcore gay disco scene in its heyday. Cowley's entry for June 26, 1977 reads:
"A red letter day. The Gay Rights parade, Christopher St. A day of total ecstasy & celebration with complete men & women. The faces that go with the images in these pages passed before me filled with the spirit of our basic need. My family from the Citoi had me Brazilian hips between the bubble machines and Robert & I beaming our beauty and love overflowing into the streets and finally to the source the sun the sun the sun & my arms & hands outstretched in communion & worship. The revelation of a martyr. Search the mere facts of his path to sainthood.
LIVING IN THIS BRAND NEW WORLD
MAY BE A FANTASY
BUT IT’S TAUGHT ME TO LOVE
AND THAT’S REAL
REAL
REAL TO ME." continue to blog


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