Jazzman Records have put their hand to another rare and seldomly recognised 1970’s tax scam recording by a short-lived group called Reality, reissuing their sole offering “Disco Party”. The album is an upbeat affair with a unique homemade sound and rustic, ramshackle aesthetic, befitting of the albums status as a tax scam release. The album was released, unbeknown to the group until decades later, on the tax-scam label TSG, affiliated to Don King Productions.
The album was initially bought by R&B kingpin Lloyd Price, who during this period was more into the business side of the music industry than the creative and performative aspects of it. Price shared an office with long term friend, associate and infamous boxing promoter Don King who oversaw Price’s label LPG as a subsidiary of the burgeoning Don King Productions empire. Though between them they only issued a handful of releases, in 1976 a secondary subsidiary of LPG was quietly brought to life called TSG, churning out approximately 14 albums in the space of a few short months. Some of the most notable releases were by The Tropics, Ricardo Marrero—a record that was exclusively sold in druggists along the Eastern Seaboard that goes for around £1600 in today’s market—and even the likes of Ike and Tina Turner.
By the following year, TSG had ceased all operations and had quietly disbanded as a company. All of the albums on the label had been released purely to exploit a lucrative loophole in the tax system that allowed companies to claim money off the back of insurmountable operational losses accrued in the recording, manufacturing and wholesaling of the record. An existing, “legit” business would set up a subsidiary label with the sole intent of recording huge losses to their tax file. In light of this, hundreds of albums were cheaply manufactured in small runs and immediately shelved—with the figures cooked by the parent company’s accountant. Often, the amount of copies pressed would be grossly exaggerated: 100 copies of any given album could have been pressed up but 10,000 declared.
Exorbitant promotional expenses would also be allocated to these releases, when in reality nonesuch promotional spending—let alone reimbursement to the musicians who recorded the music—would have been made. As the releases were conceived to be binned, it didn’t matter to the label executives what was released. Much of the fodder was taken at random from vault demos, dubious backroom deals occurred that would secure unknown masters for next to nothing, while some masters were reportedly stolen directly from studios or bootlegged from sessions. The most famous labels that sprung up during this time were Crazy Cajun, Guinness—who released both Newban (who would go on to become Atlantic Starr) and Madcliff (Players Association)—and Rocking Horse. The artists behind these records often knew nothing of what was going on until decades later, as is the case with Reality, whereupon band leader, musical director and trumpeter Dr Otto Gomez found out about the release of the album some 45 years after it was made. Sadly, a number of the original personnel had since passed away before any knowledge of this, unware that their session had ever seen the light of day, nor aware of the cult following it enjoyed in collectors circles.
The title track is a funky guitar driven work-out, supplemented with bouncing congas and a catchy bass line that pops and splutters. Guitars croon amid soaring hammond organ while a funky horn section brings the noise. The most recognisable and certainly the most in-demand track on the album is Road, a track that begins with a plucky, lo-fi bass line amid a purposefully rigid conga pattern, a shuffling stepper that oozes with an off-kilter funk, certainly a freshly baked dance floor cut sure to get people up and dancing and a rare, esoteric slab of backwater NYC disco.
Track listings:
-
01 Reality by Reality – Disco Party
-
02 Road by Reality – Disco Party
-
03 Disco Party (Let’s Have A) by Reality – Disco Party
-
04 Welcome by Reality – Disco Party
-
05 Movin’ & Groovin’ by Reality – Disco Party
-
06 Let’s Party People by Reality – Disco Party
-
07 You Keep Me Holdin’ On by Reality – Disco Party
-
08 Clap & Hustle by Reality – Disco Party
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.