Joe Theobald, aka DJ Captain Wormhole, Looks at all things vinyl 

‘REISSUE’ is a dirty word for some in the record collecting game. As defined by Wikipedia, a reissue (also re-release, repackage, or re-edition) is the release of an album (or single/EP) which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions.

Many record collectors are a bit snobby about reissues, I’ve been guilty of this myself.

Buying an original release is quite often cheaper than picking up a shiny new 180 gram re, it’s more likely to hold its value and appreciate, and as my friend put it, “they aren’t making any more of them”. But when it comes to rare African music (Afro-Funk, Afro-Beat, Boogie, Disco etc.) most of us are priced out of the market and forced to make an exception.

Reissues typically retail for £20-25 so you’ll often get a decent original for cheaper online but not with Afro, where OGs fetch hundreds, if not thousands of pounds and the only option for mere mortals is to go to the reissue market, which is thankfully booming. But is it ethical?

A while back I wrote about Frank Gossner, a German DJ/collector who has spent half his adult life digging for vinyl treasure in Africa.

Last year Frank levelled some accusations at PMG label boss Markus Presch, suggesting his label was engaged in some nefarious business practices.

Normally a label will pay to license an artist’s work for re-release, so they buy the right to press however many records but the ultimate ownership of the work is retained by the artist or their estate.

Presch has owned up to buying the rights out-right in many cases and industry insiders claim he is paying way under market value (less than some labels would pay just to license). The suggestion is that the Austrian is profiting from artists and their families who are ill-equipped to understand the full value of their work.

Discovering that a record label is exploiting its artists is hardly ‘hold the front page’ material but, if this is true, the seedy colonial undertone escalates the issue beyond mere ‘cultural appropriation’.

If you’re interested to find out more check out Afropop Worldwide’s podcast; Reissued: African Vinyl in the 21st Century, and it’s not all bad news as there are plenty of people putting out fully licensed, legitimate releases that support the contributing artists.