Here at Dreamhouse we’ve long been admirers of this fantastic San Francisco-based label, founded in 2009 by the DJ and collector Josh Cheon, which focuses on out-of-print and unreleased underground music, as well as contemporary bands. While Cheon is vocal about his love of dark synthesizer-driven music, inspired by regular trips to the New York goth club The Bank (the label is named after the first 7″ release by influential UK goths Bauhaus), Dark Entries’ incredibly varied releases include everything from ambient to 80s Portuguese rock to queer electro to post-punk to rare Italo Disco to Moroccan alt-pop – the label’s uncompromising DIY ethic at the centre of everything it does.
Dark Entries so far has over 100 releases to its name, and below we pick just a handful from the label’s inspiring catalogue.
Sunfear - All at Once
The newest release by Dark Entries is an intoxicating collection of shadowy experimental-ambient guitar works by Sunfear – AKA the Turkish multidisciplinary artist Eylül Deniz. Like Grouper’s The Man Who Dies in His Boat or Julianna Barwick’s The Magic Place reflected in a dark mirror, All at Once blends intense guitar feedback with layers of noise, creating vast, textured compositions and vocals that evoke a sense of chaos and beauty. (Released: 17/01/25)
Various Artists - Deep Entries: Gay Electronic Excursions 1979-1985
One of Dark Entries' most important missions has been to illuminate neglected facets of gay musical history with crucial archival works by underground legends such as Patrick Cowley, Sylvester, and Man Parrish – and indeed, the former is included on this brilliant compilation of queer electro-pop released between 1979 and 1985.
The 80s were a difficult period for many in the gay community as they grappled with the horrors of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The 10 tracks on Deep Entries, varied in genre and tone, are united in their portraiture of 1980s gay life, and feature previously unreleased cruising soundtracks courtesy of Cowley’s ‘Love Me Hot’, featuring vocalist Paul Parker, and Boytronic’s ‘Tonight (Alternate Mix)’, whose subject matter is Hamburg’s famous ‘Mile of Sin’; The Brisbane-based Megamen’s proto-electroclash number ‘Designed for Living’, which prefigures Madonna’s Marlene Dietrich rap in ‘Vogue’; Muzak’s ‘Happy Song’, a skittering techno-pop anthem on which trans vocalist Paula ‘Ula’ Villagrá declares, “Everyone is gay!”; and Polar Praxis’s ‘(I Want) To Be Different’, a seething ode to alterity.
The first vinyl edition is released at the end of January, and comes housed in a retro bathhouse fantasy sleeve designed by Gwenaël Rattke, and includes a double-sided poster with photographs and lyrics. Initially released digitally on 1 December last year in honour of World AIDS day, all proceeds will go to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. (Released: 31/01/25)
The Ghostwriters - Remote Dreaming
First-ever vinyl release of the 1986 ambient masterwork by The Ghostwriters, the Philadelphia duo comprised of the late Charles Cohen, inventor of the groundbreaking Buchla synth, and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Cain. The pair’s collaborations with choreographers and visual media artists led to their singular style, which, straddling improvisation and composition, is today celebrated as a landmark of experimental ambient music.
Unfurling soothing pianos, psychoacoustic textures, and somnambulant drones just skirting the edges of the uncanny, the double-vinyl Remote Dreaming comes with five additional tracks, and an insert with photos and liner notes. Proceeds will be donated to SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse), a nonprofit that combats online child sex abuse and trafficking. (Released: 01/11/24)
Various Artists - Back Up Dos: Mexican Tecno Pop 1980-1989
Following 2021's Back Up compilation, Back Up Dos delivers 10 more tracks of Mexican synth-pop and New Beat perfection, seven of which have never before appeared on vinyl. From mutant drum-machine beats to irresistible synthesizer hooks, fans of the musical fringes of the 80s will find a treasure trove of songs to stir their cold, dark hearts. But Back Up Dos does more than just mine retro kitsch – it also documents the development of a rich DIY music scene that is still criminally under-explored.
As affordable samplers and digital synths spread throughout the 80s in Mexico, post-punk and new wave gave way to more aggressive EBM and cyberpunk sounds. The scene also developed in opposition to the political climate of the times: the rise of the drug cartels and a reactionary turn in national politics. Reflecting the vibrant and chaotic Mexican cultural landscape of the era, Back Up Dos features impeccable pop anthems from acts such as Casino Shanghai and Los Agentes Secretos, as well as gnarled obscurities from bands like Ford Proco and María Bonita, showcasing a decade of sly deviance and enthusiastic experimentation. The album comes housed in an 80s-inflected neon sleeve designed by Gwenael Rattke, and includes a 12-page booklet with photographs, lyrics, and notes. (Released: Coming very soon)
Nervous Gender - Music from Hell
Confrontational, unhinged, and unabashedly queer, Nervous Gender’s 1981 masterpiece Music from Hell finally got a decades-overdue reissue last year courtesy of Dark Entries. A brilliantly obnoxious mix of post-punk, minimal synth, early industrial music and high-octane cabaret, it sounds like Sleaford Mods if they’d grown up on a diet of Silver Apples, Throbbing Gristle and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
If Eric Idle and Neil Innes had decided, post Rutles, to lampoon the West Coast punk scene, one has the feeling that they would have ditched such plans on discovering that Nervous Gender existed, respectfully conceding that no fiction they dreamed up could be as wild as the band’s lived reality, which made them outliers even by the standards of the joyfully transgressive late-70s/80s LA music scene. A case in point: when drummer Don Bolles (ex of the Germs) left the group to join 45 Grave, he was replaced by an eight-year-old German boy called Sven Pfeiffer. But to be clear, while the anecdotes maybe the stuff of legend, what makes Nervous Gender an essential part of punk history is that their thrillingly visceral music is even more remarkable than the stories. (Released: 19/01/24)