Reggae vinyl deals on Amazon UK

Buying reggae vinyl without overpaying

Reggae has a complicated reissue history, and it pays to know whose edition you are buying. Much of the classic Jamaican catalogue has been licensed, re-licensed and bootlegged for fifty years, so the same album exists in versions cut from the master tapes, from a safety copy, and from a previous vinyl pressing. Prices do not reliably reflect which is which.

Reissues from labels with a stated relationship to the original recordings — the ones that name the studio, the year and the transfer — are the safer buy. Dub in particular rewards this, because the whole point of the genre is bass weight and space, and both are the first things lost in a poor transfer.

Compilations are the value play. Well-curated multi-disc sets of singles-era material discount heavily and often contain tracks that never had a proper album release in the first place, which makes them better listening than a patchy artist LP from the same period. Check the disc count and the track list rather than the sleeve.

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