With the market flooded with reissues i personally have a hard time finding the ones that really stand out and maybe even surpass the original releases? Feel free to fill the list with releases that actually are better than the originals!
Mystic Harmony - Nights Over Egypt (Backatcha)
Original super rare, super expensive and pressed directly from cassette. The 2019 Reissue with crisp stellar sound, made from master tapes, made me take out the OG from the wantlist.
Larry Heard – Sceneries Not Songs, Volume One (Alleviated)
I love the reissue concept of Larrys releases, like Fingers Inc spread out on 3LP. Same with this! single LP turned into a double LP with very high audio quality making it a must to have.
Haven’t heard the 3LP Amnesia yet so can’t vouch for that though.,
Any Blue Note reissue that’s either ‘Tone Poet’, ‘Music Matters’ (33 or 45rpm), or mastered by Kevin Gray. Most of the other post 2000 reissues are generally dogshit.
Really glad you’ve started this thread actually. I was thinking of creating something similar about Japanese reissues.
Without wishing to hijack too much…
I’ve been buying up Herbie Hancock & Roy Ayers albums over the last year or so, because I know prices are likely to sky rocket once the inevitable happens. Where originals are fairly cheap, I’m buying these, but some albums are getting prohibitively expensive (‘He’s Coming’ by Roy Ayers for example).
I’ve seen that a lot of Roy’s albums got reissued in Japan in the early 90s on Polydor. Often referred to on Discogs as the ‘Lex’ pressings. Does anyone have any of these pressings and can comment on the quality? I’ve not seen many (if any) reviews.
Now that mystic harmony 12 is hard to find and expensive! Would love a repress of that repress!
Most records I buy seems to be represses and the quality is always be very high- never had any problems, maybe a slight warp here or there.
Tbh I’d rather buy the reissue so the money at least goes to the artist/estate/record label
I’ve got the Amnesia & Fingers Inc represses, though don’t have originals to compare them to. Introduction is the one I’d love to see reissued. Loved that album, though I had it on cassette (don’t cancel me). Mr Fingers – Introduction (1992, Vinyl) - Discogs
Recent Craft reissue of Johnny Hammond - Gears is insanely good. All analogue, mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed at QRP.
Expensive to buy from the States but worth every penny.
The Art Pepper releases are gorgeous alright. Sounds like we’re buying a lot of the same records so you probably have these already but Donald Byrd - Electric Byrd, Keith Jarrett - Bremen/Lausanne and Harold Land Quartet - The Peace Maker are all treasured recent reissues.
once the inevitable happens. Where originals are fairly cheap, I’m buying these, but some albums are getting prohibitively expensive (‘He’s Coming’ by Roy Ayers for example).