FROM DUSK 'TIL DAWN

It's always nice when a musician gets a second chance at practicing his or her art.  Often, these less commercially-inclined ventures are the ones that bring the artist more satisfaction than chasing after mammon's grail.  It looks like this might be the case with Patty Dee.

Until recently, every search I made for her came up blank, other than listings for her ultra-rare 7" 45 and 12" EP on Discogs.  I don't usually like to post things without background info, but in this case (as with one of the other posts coming up soon) I didn't have much choice; so I was happy to see upon looking again that Ms. Dee is still in the saddle, albeit in a much different way.

Her longer effort, Fade The Night Away [Aircut 002, 1979], has five songs that touch upon the darker side of minimal pop, with droney vocals and low-register synth melodies a trademark.  None of her collaborators seem to pop up much on Google searches; but the fact that Dee started her own label to release her own music, even in the heady DIY daze of the late 70s, is impressive.

That label, Aircut, only released these ultra-rare sides, & even so, they haven't really surfaced until recently.  Turns out that, presumably after a lack of success, Patty Dee folded Aircut, only to revive the label in the early aughts, to promote her continuing passion of playing the steel drum.  A quick glance at her current site (see link above) shows a devotion to Carribean music and the steel drum in particular, that Dee uses to engage and enhance her community.

Funny, the paths people travel.  Looking at the post-punk sneer she has on the cover, one would be hard pressed to envision Patty Dee in the role she has now. . . but here we are, after a bid to Fade The Night Away, in the equatorial light of a new day. . . .