Afternooners is the third and final Dark Entries-issued volume of previously unreleased music recorded by pioneering disco producer
Patrick Cowley and used as the soundtracks to gay pornographic films. While
School Daze contained some of the producer's most experimental work, filled with lengthy cosmic voyages and cyber-exotica, and the similar-minded
Muscle Up added a few more doses of raw funk,
Afternooners concentrates on spacy, skeletal disco rhythms, generally at a much slower pace than the Hi-NRG sound
Cowley was best known for creating. All of the tracks (aside from the final three) were recorded in May of 1982, mere months before
Cowley's untimely death, so the release has a much more unified, consistent sound than the previous two collections, and there are no 15-minute ambient odysseys on this one. As such, it's the most accessible of the three releases, as well as the most DJ-friendly. It's still far from conventional-sounding, however; the melodies are sometimes a bit wacky and mischievous, and there's a detached trippiness to slower numbers like "The Runner" and "Bore & Stroke." It's easy to suspect that these tracks might've been inspired by early hip-hop rhythms, but they seem to prophesize the hazy, VHS-filtered sounds that artists like
Com Truise and
Tobacco would be making three decades later. "Love Come Set Me Free," a romantic electro-dub tune, ends the album on a somewhat bittersweet note. Playful, fun, and steamy,
Afternooners is another remarkable collection of obscure heat from the visionary artist.