more from
Albina Music Trust
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Disco Fantasy Land

by Transport

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD  or more

     

  • Limited Edition 12" Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Vinyl album includes a double-sided 12x18" poster. The insert features a reimagined "Disco Fantasy Land" event poster on one side and reconstructed slides of archival band photography on the flip side.

    Please note any orders containing preorder items won’t be shipped until all items are available. Please order this item separately if you wish to avoid delays.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Disco Fantasy Land via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
2.
Stay With Me 03:20
3.
4.
Always There 05:23

about

“It's a place where people go, again and again. The name of the place is Disco Fantasy Land.”

These lyrics introduce the title track of this previously unreleased Transport album from 1978. Featuring members of The Gangsters, Ural Thomas’ 1960s band, and Nu Shooz, the group has been under the radar since its inception, only recently rediscovered by Albina Music Trust.

Though much is unknown, it has been said that this short-lived band was a going concern among heavyweights in the yesteryear of Portland night life. With homemade fog machines and custom electrical light detail, Transport's take on disco-funk calls to mind the clavinet sound of Stevie Wonder’s peak period, the glistening groove of A Taste of Honey, and the mystic pastiche that is Dee D. Jackson's cult release, Cosmic Curves.

For the first time on record, listeners can finally hear the sounds of this singular Pacific Northwest outfit.

Tragically, in their heyday Transport rarely found themselves performing in the city's upscale downtown venues. As was common with Multnomah County's predominantly Black acts, Transport's star shimmered then faded quickly as thinly veiled, racist OLCC regulations circumvented the group's efforts to excel as working musicians in downtown night clubs. In effect, the band's music was redlined to within Portland's only predominantly Black neighborhood, Albina.

This session captures Transport at its peak. Helmed by engineer Bob Stoutenburg of Recording Associates, the original session has been exhaustively restored from tape and mastered by Gus Elg. Archival performance photography as well as a reimagined vintage poster is included in the package.

The LP features cuts like “Move Your Body To The Music,” an ecstatic, sizzling slap anchored by Narvy James' deep pocket and bass-in-your-face courtesy of Randy Monroe’s right thumb. "Stay With Me" features the band's manager, Larry Lovely, on lead vocals with heavenly gospel harmonies a la Rosalind Johnson and Regina Irving. And the album's title track unfolds like "2001: A Space Odyssey," with interlocking clavinet and synth washes devised by Albina's ubiquitous keyboard team, the Sanders brothers. Lastly, it is the band’s reckoning with cult disco classic “Always There” that takes this record to the limit.

Unfortunately, this incarnation of Transport was short-lived and the group split up not long after the session was recorded. While their presence was felt among locals, this small chapter in the group's biography is now readily available for listeners worldwide. The name of the place is Disco Fantasy Land.

credits

released May 28, 2021

All songs performed by Transport.
Recorded by Bob Stoutenburg at Recording Associates, 1979.

Transport musicians featured on this recording are:

Michael Cooper - Saxophone
Regina Earvins - Vocals
Narvy James - Drums
Rosalind Johnson - Vocals
Doug Lawrence - Trumpet
Bob McLarty - Guitar
Randy Monroe - Electric Bass
Jimmy Sanders - Clavinet
Johnny Sanders - Synthesizer
Edwin Wack - Trombone
Larry Lovely - Manager

Executive Production by Bobby Smith
for World Arts Foundation.
Cassette Preservation and Mastering by Gus Elg.
Design by Brian Mumford.
Center Label Script Illustration by Eric W Mast.
Project support by Jared White and Sam Slater.
Special thanks to Michelle Vosika-Cooper.

This record made possible with support
from the Oregon Cultural Trust.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Transport Portland, Oregon

Disco + Jazz-Funk Band from Portland.

1978-1980

contact / help

Contact Transport

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Transport, you may also like: