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Ships in a generic sleeve with hype sticker.

On 'Boogie Down' Bubbha Thomas and The Lightmen lean away from the jazzier moods that they were best known for, towards a mid-tempo boogie/funk workout featuring wide open drum breaks, analog synths, fat claps and vibey backing vocals.

The original 45, released in 1980, now goes for silly money if you can find one, so we thought it would be nice to make it available again. Dedicated to the extensive musical and educational work of Bubbha, who passed away at the end of 2020.
Remastered from original master tapes, officially licensed from Now Again.

Nat Turner Rebellion, the Philadelphia soul-music group release their long-awaited debut album, originally signed to local label Philly Groove Records, the group is made up of Joe Jefferson (who sadly passed away in July 2020), Major Harris, Ron Harper, and Bill Spratley - pioneers of the Philly Soul and protest music movements. For their debut track, 'Tribute To A Slave', NTR channeled the revolutionary spirit of the infamous 1831 uprising, after which the group derived their name. Starting in 1969, NTR wrote and recorded dozens of tracks with only a handful of singles released. Tensions with then-Philly Groove Records label head Stan Watson sidelined the project and the tapes went unheard for decades. Then, in 2012 when Reservoir Media acquired Philly Groove Records, they discovered the tapes in Sigma Sound Studios archive. Jefferson, lone-surviving NTR member, gave his blessing for the 14-track collection, Laugh To Keep From Crying, which made it's only US debut last year with a limited vinyl-only run via Vinyl Me Please. The themes they wrote about are still as relevant today as they were in 1969. Chrysalis Records are now proud to partner with Reservoir Media to do a full Worldwide release of the album, with a bonus track, new artwork and sleeve notes. There will also be a debut CD of the album. The vinyl has been newly mastered and cut by Alchemy in London. The packaging is a standard 3" spine sleeve with a 12" insert and the vinyl housed in a poly-lined sleeve.

The missing link between her Barry and Columbia singles, “I Can’t Stand It” b/w “Only Yesterday” is Thelma Jones with her back against the wall of an empty and indifferent Holiday Inn lounge and nothing to lose. Washed out of the recording business by the age of 30, Jones and her then-husband/manager James Hazley relocated to Tampa to work the hotel circuit and figure out what—if anything—was next. Following a chance encounter with Blair Mooney, Jones was invited to workshop a few stray originals at his Studio 70 compound in 1972. “He seemed to believe in me more than I did at the time,”Jones remembered of the Tampa studio impresario. Jones signed with Columbia a few years later and hightailed it out of The Big Guava, leaving two sides of country-politan soul on the shelf to be forgotten about. This Eccentric Soul 45 is a first time issue, carrying the banner of Mooney’s Gimp label and mastered directly from the original analog tapes.

Gathered for the first time and including what can safely be called a holy grail of Gospel music is the very best of Joy, compiled from their albums “I Feel The Spirit” and “The Time Is Right”. Consisting of members of the St. Stephen's Church of God in Christ in San Diego, Joy was a performing Gospel band spreading the word of God throughout the local community and opening for renowned Gospel artists such as Danniebelle Hall, Jessy Dixon and Sandra Crouch. Led by producer/musician Matt Anderson, the two albums were recorded in ’78 and ’83 and feature an impressive array of very talented contributing artists such as bass player Michael-Kae and multi-instrumentalist Clarence Bell, also known for his work with Stevie Wonder and Patrice Rushen. Restored and remastered from the original master tapes, the compilation is available on a high quality vinyl pressing and includes the masterpiece “The Time Is Right” among a collection of lesser known but equally powerful and timeless pieces of music.

Limited vinyl edition!

Although best known in the global music world for his four years (1984-1988) as the music director and bandleader for Whitney Houston, John’s tenure in the soul music field began when he was a member (with his brother Edmund ‘Butch’ Simmons) of The Reflections, a New York City-based quartet who toured from 1972-1975 as the backing group for the legendary Melba Moore. In 1975, The Reflections had a Top 10 R&B hit with “Three Steps From True Love.”

In 1978, John began touring with Stephanie Mills, at the same time collaborating with Phillip Ballou, a member of another New York-based vocal group, Revelation and UK soul music journalist David Nathan (who he met when Nathan did an interview with The Reflections for Britain’s “Blues & Soul” magazine in 1975). The trio wrote a number of songs for Ballou’s demo as a solo artist and while nothing transpired in that regard, John recorded his own version of one of the tunes, “Ain’t Nothing Like The Love” for a small independent Michigan label, Sabrina Records in 1981. John had worked with Cissy Houston at New Hope Baptist Church in New Jersey where she was the minister of music was asked by her to do some initial promotional dates with her daughter Whitney after Arista Records released her first single in 1984; he continued doing world tours with Houston until he passed away at the age of 45 in March 1989.

The Ballou sessions (held mostly in Montclair, New Jersey) expanded into recording dates for both Nathan and Simmons. None of the original recordings were released commercially – until now. In the wake of the interest among rare groove collectors in John’s version of “Ain’t Nothing Like The Love,” Nathan – himself a recording artist since 2003 – has uncovered the tapes of all the material he, Phllip and John recorded in 1978 and 1979.

Gaining its first-ever release now on Nefer Records via Super Disco Edits is the coupling of John’s solo composition, the upbeat gospel-infused “Safe” and the midtempo, “I Wanna Be Closer,” another one of the songs also recorded (and thus far unissued by both Ballou and Nathan).

"Willie "Junei" Lee spent the first half of the 1970s playing guitar with his older brother Robert Lee in the self-contained band Lost Weekend, recording a handful of singles and a still unreleased LP. The back half of the decade was spent touring with Albert King, Curtis Mayfield, and The Emotions, before returning home to Gary, Indiana, to focus on his own sound. In 1985, Junei's girlfriend brought home a suite of Fostex home studio gear, including a 12 channel board, 8-track tape machine, and a halftrack for mix downs. He added a Yamaha drum machine and a Maestro echoplex and started his solo project. "The only artists I listened to was Hendrix and Santana," Junei said. The emissions coming from his home studio were entirely different, however, as "Let's Ride" channels the Euro sensibilities of Kraftwerk or Italo over virtuosic guitar. "I just didn't want to sound like anyone else," he continued. "Let's Ride" achieved that differentiation, and managed to anticipate Chicago house by a few years. Pressed in minuscule numbers in 1987 on Pharaohs Records, the 45 never connected with the nearby scenes in Chicago and Detroit where it might have found purchase in fertile soils. Decades later "Let's Ride" found new life as the bed for KAYTRANADA's "Scared To Death," and the track has slowly worked its way through the algorithm to a new generation of vapor huffers. "I am all for experimentation, trying new things, etc," Junei said. "Kaytranada is a visionary and a talented producer. He has my respect.""

Big Crown Records is proud to present Piece of Me, the sophomore full length offering from Lady Wray. This is something of a homecoming for Nicole. Where her 2016 solo debut Queen Alone leaned more towards Soul and R&B with tinges of hip-hop, this record changes the mixture. It's still R&B with the textures of analog Soul, but there is a heavy Hip Hop influence that brings the sum of Nicole's career together in a new sound that will define her future. Boom-bap drums and chunky bass lines are front-and-center creating a perfect head-nodding backdrop for Lady Wray to take on the good, the bad, the difficult, and the joyful on her most personal collection of songs to date.

The title track, "Piece of Me," which has already become a classic since it's 2019 release is about the people in your life who need more than you are willing to give. This tune and the B side of the 7” “Come On In” were the first songs put to tape for this album and they were recorded with Nicole sitting in a chair 8 months pregnant with her daughter. Her voice is so powerful, so raw, so thorough on these initial songs—it's wild to think that they were recorded this way. And even wilder to know that she knocked them all out in one take. Long time collaborator and producer Leon Michels keeps the musical backing restrained and expertly executed, setting up Lady Wray for the full spotlight and setting the tone for the rest of the album.

While the upbeat energies of “Under The Sun” and “Through It All” are sure to become hits that reconnect Lady Wray with her 90s R&B fanbase, “Where Were You” offers a behind the scenes look at what those days of stardom in her youth were really like. Nicole takes on the racial tension in America with her poetic and powerful “Beauty In The Fire” and leans heavy into her faith and church upbringing on the showstopper, “Thank You”. She gushes about the profound love she’s come to know for her daughter on “Melody” and celebrates life’s ups and downs on “Joy & Pain”. In 2021 it is rare to hear a varied yet cohesive album with no “skippers”, but that is what you have here in spades. The tried and true chemistry between Lady Wray and Leon Michels has undeniably found a higher level and this album stands as a testament to conviction and dedication for all of us to enjoy and be inspired by.

With this in mind, when talking about this record, for Lady Wray, it's about a larger purpose. "My goal is always to help and to heal people with singing," she explains. "Part of that is to try and bring back real music, real singing, so people can feel something again." Now, she's not dissing anyone here, to be clear. It's just that Lady Wray cannot sing without tapping into something deeper, searching for that shared compassion between all of us. Perhaps it comes from her church upbringing, or maybe from her years of trials and tribulations in the music industry. Either way, Lady Wray is looking to bring that "Good Sound" back and the good feelings that come with it. She calls it "those inner hands," and she always means to stir them up, grabbing your attention from within.

With past albums like the Lady project and Queen Alone, it's hard to not acknowledge that Lady Wray plus Leon Michels production equals magic. But this magic is also coming from the fact that Lady Wray is now squarely herself, calling her shots, and singing to help heal first—everything else is secondary. "It's a beautiful thing I've always wanted in my career, and now I have it," Lady Wray says. "They encourage me to be me all day long." This is Lady Wray at her finest, and she's giving us all a piece of where she's at these days.

"In the 1970s, Betty Davis defied genre and gender by pushing her voice to extremes and embracing the erotic. She articulated a kind of pre–punk, funk–blues fusion that had yet to be normalized in mainstream music — a style that few musicians have come close to replicating. As one of the first Black women to write, arrange, and produce her own albums, Betty was a visionary who disregarded industry boundaries and constraints. Raw, unapologetic, and in full control, Betty paved the way for generations of future artists who said ‘funk you’ to the music industry and social norms.

In 1975, Betty Davis’s star was on the rise. With the backing of Island Records and a new band, Funk House, Betty’s third album, Nasty Gal, leans into the hyper-sexualized persona with which her critics were so obsessed. She raps, purrs, shrieks, and moans on top of Funk House’s manic funk-rock and lays claim to the “bad girl” anthems that now saturate the music industry. Mastered from the original tapes, Nasty Gal showcases Betty’s groundbreaking work as a performer, writer, and producer."