Various Artists - Deep Entries: Gay Electronic Excursions 1979-1985

Deep Entries: Gay Electronic Excursions 1979-1985 is Dark Entries' love letter to the synth-driven side of queer nightlife, ten obscure tracks from the years when the dance floor was both refuge and risk.

The San Francisco label has made a mission of rescuing neglected corners of gay musical history, from Patrick Cowley and Sylvester to Man Parrish, and this collection reaches further into the archive, from sultry to angsty to camp. Snappy 808 snares and sinewy analogue leads hold it all together, and the songs share a portrait of 1980s gay life shadowed by the AIDS crisis, still reaching for love or at least a fleeting romance.

Love Me Hot, a previously unreleased cruising soundtrack from Patrick Cowley with vocalist Paul Parker, sets the tone. Designed for Living by Brisbane's Megamen is proto-electroclash that prefigures Vogue's Dietrich rap, Muzak's Happy Song is a skittering tecnopop anthem with Ula Villagrá declaring that everyone is gay, and Nightmoves' Nightdrive supplies brooding instrumental mood.

The record comes in a retro bathhouse fantasy sleeve by Gwenaël Rattke, with a double-sided poster of photographs and lyrics, and proceeds go to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. A joyful, defiant and sometimes tender history lesson that you can dance to.