P. Cowley
Real Name:
Patrick Joseph Cowley
Profile:
San Francisco based musician and record producer Patrick Cowley, born in Buffalo, New York, has been recording and performing in the Bay area since 1971. Cowley grew up in upstate New York where he worked in local rock bands and eventually studied English at the university of Buffalo. After moving to the Bay Area he began an intense study of the synthesizer at San fransisco City College.
Cowley's recording career began when he was asked to join San Francisco-based artist, Sylvester, in the studio after Sylvester heard what Cowley was doing with the synthesizer and was excited by his innovative techniques. The result was the album Step II which skyrocketed Sylvester to international notoriety. The album landed Cowley a job as a back-up musician on Sylvester's subsequent world-wide tour.
Cowley remained close to the San Francisco club scene and eventually joined forces with producer Marty Blecman to form Megatone Records in the summer of 1981. Under auspices of their parnership Cowley created a succesful dance-oriented 12" single that opened the doors for his award-winning Megatron Man LP (Menergy).
While writing the music for his latest album, he also wrote and produced the succesful dance single "Right on Target" for San Francisco artist Paul Parker which reached #1 on Billboard's Disco Charts. He reunited with Sylvester during the same period and produced the chart-busting "Do You Wanna Funk", also on the Megatone label.
Patrick Cowley died of complications due to AIDS in 1982.
Cowley's recording career began when he was asked to join San Francisco-based artist, Sylvester, in the studio after Sylvester heard what Cowley was doing with the synthesizer and was excited by his innovative techniques. The result was the album Step II which skyrocketed Sylvester to international notoriety. The album landed Cowley a job as a back-up musician on Sylvester's subsequent world-wide tour.
Cowley remained close to the San Francisco club scene and eventually joined forces with producer Marty Blecman to form Megatone Records in the summer of 1981. Under auspices of their parnership Cowley created a succesful dance-oriented 12" single that opened the doors for his award-winning Megatron Man LP (Menergy).
While writing the music for his latest album, he also wrote and produced the succesful dance single "Right on Target" for San Francisco artist Paul Parker which reached #1 on Billboard's Disco Charts. He reunited with Sylvester during the same period and produced the chart-busting "Do You Wanna Funk", also on the Megatone label.
Patrick Cowley died of complications due to AIDS in 1982.
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Patrick Cowley
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Reviews & Discussion
My deepest respect to Mr.Patrick Cowley. He was one of the visionary pioneers of the early electronic music scene, and his records and mixes became blueprints for many recent retro-ish releases. Sadly enough, he already passed away. All we have left is his legacy: spaced out, electrified disco music by the Megatron Man!
Patrick Cowley was one of the artists who bridged the gap between disco and the hi-NRG sound of the mid-80s; he wasn't quite a pioneer of modern electronic dance music, instead occupying a similar off-to-one-side spot as Giorgio Moroder, Jan Hammer, Harold Faltermeyer and the like. His style is essentially derivative of Moroder, although he has left behind a number of classic disco singles, including 'Do You Wanna Funk', 'Menergy' and his voluminous remix of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love'. He was also a talented synth keyboardist, and is part of a generation of early electronic musicians - again, just like Hammer, Moroder, and so forth - who grew up at a time when synthesisers were generally seen in the forbidding, academic context of experimental music, and who took the tools of Stockhausen etc and used them to make people dance.
Listened to in 2005, his music had dated, but in a generally good way; the production uses a lot of analogue synthesisers and real drums, and consequently it doesn't sound as thin and weedy as pop-dance singles from later in the decade ('Menergy' has an unimpressive 'robot voice' effect but otherwise swoops and swooshes in the classic style, and has a wonderful soaring disco diva vocal). Indeed, he was an early exponent of the kind of 'big production' that became mainstream in rock music during the 80s, but instead applied to synthesisers.
He was big in gay disco circles, didn't really cross over into the mainstream, and is a cult figure nowadays.
Listened to in 2005, his music had dated, but in a generally good way; the production uses a lot of analogue synthesisers and real drums, and consequently it doesn't sound as thin and weedy as pop-dance singles from later in the decade ('Menergy' has an unimpressive 'robot voice' effect but otherwise swoops and swooshes in the classic style, and has a wonderful soaring disco diva vocal). Indeed, he was an early exponent of the kind of 'big production' that became mainstream in rock music during the 80s, but instead applied to synthesisers.
He was big in gay disco circles, didn't really cross over into the mainstream, and is a cult figure nowadays.
