Why indie labels are mastering the art of reissuing musicArthur Verocai, Mary Clark, Gloria Ann Taylor, William Onyeabor, The Supreme Jubilees, — all artists that, before recent reissues, you’d likely never heard of. Thanks to the relentless devotion of independent labels and crate diggers, these artists and countless others have seen a second wave of renown and success. With their music being remastered and redistributed, these old-school gems have found their way to DJs, dancefloors and streaming algorithms, which are letting them shine decades past their original release.

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Reissuers spend countless hours securing audible gold to democratise access to PVC slices of tropical cool; music from far off lands that would only exist with exorbitant price tags, if available at all. If done right, reissuing contextualises the music and the culture it originates from – distributing revenue fairly and ultimately bringing new attention to deserving artists.
This, however, is no easy job. So, here, we learn from some of the most interesting reissuing labels around, the artists who’ve benefited from the process, and an award-winning audio technician who’s remastered and pressed much of this work to glossy new vinyl.
The process
“There’s always a story, and never an easy licence”, says Kevin Griffiths, who founded the wonderfully eclectic Isle of Jura Records in 2016. First, you choose a piece of music that deserves to be more accessible. Next, through a lot of “mundane detective work” you find the best quality physical copy you can and contact the licence holders – preferably the artist and original record label but, failing that, the producer, writer, or artist’s next of kin. From here, you work out a licensing arrangement; commonly five years of streaming, plus the remastering, repressing, and distribution of newly-pressed physical media.
Some reissues come together easily, such as Parisian Afrobeat and Afrofunk label Hot Casa’s reissue of Benin singer Stanislas Tohon’s killer 1985 four EP Owhaaou…! — as the French label had mutual connections with Stanislas. Others… not so much. Julien Le Brun, the label’s founder took seven years and eight or so trips into Togo to make its Togo Soul 2 compilation, a 13-track treasure-trove of rare and unusual music from the West African state.
A successful reissue often relies on strong personal connections and networks to find the original physical media and the original artist or label. Hot Casa’s musical connections, as well as the shared culture and language between France and its former colonial subjects in sub-Saharan Africa, are vital assets to founder Hot Casa’s reissuing catalogue.
Napo de mi Amor, an artist whose music was reissued by Hot Casa for their ‘Togo Soul’ compilation series.
When mutual connections aren’t present, it gets tricky. The quest to find the original creator of great music has even led Isle of Jura, based in Australia, to hire a private detective to hunt down the original creator of a record that has never had a full release, from 1982 New York.
Griffiths says he was introduced to the PI through a friend at another label who’d also used his services. It’s “unusual” for the label to go down this route, and this was the only time Isle of Jura had done it, but all other avenues were exhausted and there was little info online. Although he was successful in finding out who the artist was, they’d unfortunately passed away. Griffiths managed to find a family member, but at the time of writing, no licensing agreement has been arranged.
Even when you find the original creators, it isn’t certain that it will result in a reissue. After many hours, Hot Casa tracked an artist who wouldn’t give the rights over on religious grounds, as they became a devout pastor. The label has over 20 pieces of music they want to reissue but can’t because they either can’t find the person or said person won’t give permission.
The ethics
The benefits that reissuing provides to the original artists, both artistically and monetarily, are undeniable. Although some relationships between label and artist are inevitably shaped by the historical legacy of colonialism, the original artist still benefits greatly and withholds all artistic licence and responsibility. The benefit may be mutual, but it is far from exploitative; it’s symbiotic.
However, we can’t ignore streaming platforms’ insufficient contribution to original artists or labels. Josh FB from Discoteque Tropicales, a London-based brand specialising in Zouk and other classic French African dance music, adds that, despite the significant reach streaming can provide, this isn’t “sufficient to support artists”. Purchasing digital copies of music, if and when possible (particularly off Bandcamp, where fans have paid artists and their labels $1.3 billion to date), is still, and probably always will be, better than listening on streaming services.
Ronnie Lion x Isle of Jura
When considering the circumstances, however, even limited income from streaming is better than nothing — which may be what these artists would receive if their music stayed locked in insular markets, and only available on physical media; and this is before we consider any future potential revenue this new-found audience could provide through vinyl sales and concerts further down the line.
Reissuing is a positive force economically. Culturally, however, there is a fine line to tread; like timeless art or historical objects in museums, care must be taken to properly contextualise the artist and the art to pay homage to their work and the culture that created it.
It wasn’t made in a vacuum — and a reissue is merely a reflection of the powerful work already done by someone else; the limelight is theirs. Focusing the story on this, rather than picking it up from where and when the label found it, is essential to not whitewashing art and erasing the culture that made it. This should be as much of an act of historicising and story-telling as remastering, marketing, and distribution.
Sound quality
Some audio purists debate about reissues, often claiming that they’re not reproduced from analogue source material and, therefore, are of lower audio quality.
There is some truth to this. It’s unlikely you’d find the original lacquer cutting of an old recording, especially rare productions from developing countries. However, the reason the quality may be poor isn’t due to digital technologies poisoning the analogue process – particularly in this context.
Digital doesn’t necessarily mean worse. In fact, we’ve never had access to better-sounding material thanks to all the digital tools that can complement the work done by analogue workhorses. This “wasn’t true in the 90s” due to limited technologies and “flawed” CD formats, says Frank Merritt, leading technician and owner of The Carvery – a multiple Grammy-nominated vinyl cutting and mastering studio in East London. But it certainly is now. “It’s all contextual, and a hybrid approach is best.”
Frank Merritt of The Carvery.
Access to the original master copy, if made by a purely analogue process and if stored in perfect condition, would likely create the best copy reissue. Since this is far from likely, however, the best quality reissues today are made via hybrid technologies. Merret says that digital tools can remove “80 to 90 per cent of clicks to clean up a damaged physical copy” – a real asset for potentially damaged physical media.
The main pieces of tech Merret uses for reissues are the following, although he stresses he doesn’t always need them all:

Neumann W492 and W495B equalisers
Maselec MTC-1X Mastering Transfer Console
Thermionic Culture Phoenix tube compressor
Maselec MEA-2 equaliser
Klark-Teknik DN-50 reverb
Gyraf Audio Gyratec XXI Magneto-Dynamic Infundibulum multi-band analogue soft clipper
CEDAR restoration software
iZotope RX

All things considered, putting new material to wax is best done via analogue. There have been cases of big labels skimping on quality for profit – which led the excellent folk and country duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to press their own cuttings following the Dutch label Music On Vinyl using a CD source to make “poor–sounding” vinyl copies of Ms. Welch’s 2003 album Soul Journey.
“What people do nowadays is take a digital file and just run vinyl off that,” says Rawlings. “In my mind, if we were going to do it, I wanted to do it the way the records I love were made – from analogue tapes.” So, in 2000, the pair spent $100,000 on their own record-cutting lathe to make sure the labels pressed analogue-sourced material.
Reissues shouldn’t be held to the same standards as a new, original pressing. The remastering process for a reissue is just doing the best it can to improve flawed copies of old music which can’t be re-recorded, and which otherwise wouldn’t be heard at all.
As Zag Erlot, the man behind the hit YouTube channel and mix series My Analog Journal, says: “When you know the reissuing label won’t disappoint, I cannot see a reason why anyone would spend hundreds, if not thousands, on an original pressing that is probably not going to be in great condition. At the end of the day, a DJ shouldn’t play a tune with lots of crackles.”
The people behind the music
We should be grateful, then, to those who undertake the mammoth task of a successful reissue. It’s an act that can mean far more than may appear at first glance. Yes, previously unheard and unappreciated music can now grace more peoples’ ears and the turntables of enthusiasts, but what’s more beautiful is that new life that can be given to original artists following a successful reissue.
Sometimes, this simply reignites a passion; a wonderful thing when four decades or so after your work, someone tracks you down and wants to invest in your art and spread it to new listeners.
Other times, it starts a chain reaction worthy of a biopic. Reissues have shone a light on genius artists, who are now perhaps forgotten and stuck in everyday drudgery – inspiring a second wind in their musical career. Sometimes, this even results in new music and tours decades after their original creations.
This is best summed up by Discoteque Tropicales, whose killer reissue of Guadeloupean Manix’s 1988 EP Voyager, inspired the artist to say: “Now in my 70s, what a joy it is to discover my songs are being loved in new parts of the world that I could never have imagined them spreading to in the mad 80s. A reissue is like a renaissance, a second wind that reaffirms my belief that both music and love will never die.”
Discotheque Tropicales with Manix following his reissue
One particularly impressive story is Who is William Onyeabor?, a 2013 compilation album by William Onyeabor released by Luaka Bop. This was the first official reissue of the artist, who was widely heard in Nigeria in the late 70s and early 80s, but remained reclusive and had little influence outside of his home country.
Following the reissue, William found a new international interest in his music. In 2014, Noisey released Fantastic Man, which documented Onyeabor’s legacy as well as Noisey’s attempt to track him down for an interview. His song Fantastic Man was also featured in a television commercial for Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus in 2017, as well as a 2023 commercial for H&M. Onyeabor died at his home in Enugu from natural causes in 2017, aged 70.
The consequences
Pioneering artists, particularly from the broad musical umbrella of Afrobeat and Afrofunk, made (and still make) timeless music – but it’s often unavailable to those outside of their regional markets. Through significant effort, investment, and time taken, reissuing labels and their remastering engineers change this.
So, let’s salute the record hunters trawling through dusty boxes in far-off lands or those closer to home. They take the time to find lost gems, restore their natural shine, and democratise access, so everyday people like myself can feel the warm glow of cool success as we get a rare record out and place it gently onto the platter.
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