Disco legend Sylvester comes to Dark Entries with Private Recordings: August 1970, an intimate collection of vintage jazz, blues, and gospel. While Sylvester is best known for his chart-topping collaborations with producer Patrick Cowley, such as “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” this release reveals his passion for the sounds of the 30s and 40s. In 1970 a 22-year-old Sylvester had moved to San Francisco and found himself involved with the Cockettes, the infamous psychedelic performance art troupe. Among this milieu was Peter Mintun, a pianist and record collector living in a commune devoted to retro culture. According to Mintun, “We were like hippies who lived in the twenties. We lived in a house that didn’t have anything modern in it. Nothing in it was made after World War II.” Mintun and Sylvester bonded over their love of Black singers of yore and were allotted a slot during Cockettes performances reviving the music of the Prohibition Era. One afternoon, Sylvester and Mintun recorded a number of their shared favorites using a high-end microphone a friend had acquired. Private Recordings features 9 songs from this session, including standards like “Stormy Weather,” “Happy Days Are Here Again,” and “God Bless the Child.” Sylvester’s unmistakable falsetto brings depth and a dash of camp to these familiar tunes. The recordings are casual and intimate, even capturing banter between Sylvester and Mintun; their brief rendition of “When My Dreamboat Comes Home” has the duo working out a melody in real time. In addition to their sonic explorations of decades past, Sylvester and Mintun also staged photographic shoots in vintage couture. Private Recordings comes with a 16-page booklet on firm cardstock featuring images from these never-before-seen shoots as well as liner notes from Mintun detailing his friendship with Sylvester and their experiences recording. All this is housed in a metallic silver sleeve designed by Eloise Leigh featuring a 1920’s Art Deco aesthetic. The record will be released on September 6th which would have been Sylvester’s 76th birthday, and all proceeds from Private Recordings will go to the two charities that Sylvester left his royalties after his death: Project Open Hand and PRC (formerly AIDS Emergency Fund). This essential release documents the earliest known recordings from one of disco’s greatest talents. More

Repress!
Officially licensed, expertly executed and respectful re-edit of one of Sylvester’s most loved disco anthems, ‘You Make Me Feel Mighty Real’, from the maestro Michael Gray. Set to storm festivals, clubs, radiowaves, you name it – it’s a summer soundtrack if there ever was one! More

Craft Recordings and Soulwax are pleased to celebrate Pride by producing a fresh and joyful remix of Sylvester's 1978 disco classic, 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’."You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) - Soulwax For Despacio Remix” is available across digital platforms from June 25th, while a 12-inch release with a vinyl exclusive instrumental version on the B-side is available to pre-order now. It was made to play on the Despacio sound system, a 50,000 watt, state-of- the-art, vinyl only sound system which Soulwax created with James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem, DFA Records) & powered by McIntosh & Jordan Acoustics.“Unlike other remixes where we usually replace most of the elements and make something radically different based around the vocal, we made this remix using only the parts we found on the original multitrack that we were so kindly given by the Sylvester estate. Even though we have played this song a million times, we discovered a few elements that we had never heard before, like a crazy Patrick Cowley synth solo and somewhere hidden before the start of the multitrack, the ending of what sounds like a gospel version of 'Mighty Real’. It was a huge privilege to be asked to remix this seminal track and we hope that Sylvester will dance to it, wherever he is” Soulwax More

- Gil Scott-Heron was twenty-one years old when he was signed to Flying Dutchman by Bob Thiele to make an album of his poetry. The resultant "Small Talk at 125th and Lenox" was recorded before a small live audience and, released in 1970, sat perfectly in a world where the Last Poets had just tasted Top 10 success with their debut LP. "Small Talk at 125th and Lenox" opened with a spoken word version of 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' and also featured poems and musical pieces like 'Omen', 'Brother', 'Plastic Pattern People', 'Paint It Black' and 'Everyday' that reflected on the black community and its condition within America at this time.

- The starkest of these sharp observational pieces from Scott-Heron was 'Whitey On The Moon', which recounts the US Government spending billions on landing a rocket on the moon at a time when, "a rat done bit my sister, Nell".

- Like its follow-up - "Pieces Of A Man" - "Small Talk at 125th and Lenox" is a classic album and we are delighted to serve it up again on vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with the original liner notes.

With current "Big Talk" of going back to the moon, whilst injustice still prevails for many black people in America, "Small Talk at 125th and Lenox" still conveys a message that resonates today. More

After the success of "Expansions" (1975) Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes were riding high, with Lonnie at the height of his creative powers. Two more albums followed on Flying Dutchman before changes at RCA meant that it was decided that the next album would be released on the parent label. As such, the final Cosmic Echoes album on RCA was neglected and has remained out of print on vinyl since its original release back in 1976. Produced by Bob Thiele and Lonnie, this album we now restore this to its position in the Flying Dutchman catalogue on this vinyl reissue.
A masterpiece of cosmic jazz funk "Renaissance" includes the reflective 'Between Here And There', the jazz dance classic 'Mardi Gras (Carnival)' and the sensational 'Space Lady'.
180g black vinyl in replica gatefold sleeve. More

- 1971 and Black America was luxuriating in the soft soul of the O'Jays, the Temptations had just left behind their flirtation with psychedelia, James Brown was explaining Soul Power, Sly & the Family Stone were having a Family Affair, and Marvin Gaye was asking 'What's Going On'.
- In their own inimitable way, Funkadelic were laying down their own statement about the ecology of the planet in the opening of lead and title track 'Maggot Brain', turning it into an elegy for the Earth in the ensuing heart-wrenching extended Eddie Hazel guitar solo - one of the most radical records of the period.
- The album also spawned two Top 50 singles with the usual Funkadelic wry observational humour of 'You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks' and 'Can You Get To That'. And just in case you think things have normalised, the set closes with nine minutes of the chaotic sound collage 'Wars Of Armageddon'.
- This 50th anniversary edition includes a second 12" with two versions of the title track. Side A features the live version from Meadowbrook from the same year that the studio album came out. Jump forward 46 years to the "Reworked by Detroiters" release and side B has the BMG Dub, showing the enduring quality of one of the great guitar records of all time.
- This issue is mastered from fresh transfers of the tape.
- Facsimile gatefold sleeve.
- Coloured vinyl (Disc 1 - Blue & Splatter Red / Disc 2 - Clear). More