Twenty years ago, hearing a rare deep soul side meant finding the original 45 or knowing someone who had one. Today it means ordering a properly mastered, properly licensed reissue for the price of two pints. This is the single biggest change in soul collecting in a generation, and it happened because a handful of small soul reissue labels decided that archival work was worth doing well.
This guide covers the soul reissue labels we actually buy from, what each one is good at, and how to tell a legitimate reissue from a bootleg. It is written for people who want the music rather than the trophy, though there is plenty here for collectors too.
Why reissues matter more than originals
Let us deal with the snobbery first, because it gets in the way.
There is a strand of collecting that treats an original pressing as the only authentic object and everything else as a photocopy. For very rare records this position is expensive, and for most listeners it is beside the point. An original 1968 soul 45 that has been played a thousand times at all-nighters is often in worse condition than a new pressing cut from a clean source tape. You are paying a large premium for provenance, not for sound.
There is also an ethical dimension that the scene took far too long to take seriously. Most of the artists on these records were paid badly or not at all, and many spent decades watching their work change hands for hundreds of pounds without seeing a penny. A licensed reissue puts money back into the rights chain. A bootleg does not. That difference is worth caring about.
The soul reissue labels below are the ones that made that argument winnable. None of which means originals are pointless. If you want the artefact, buy the artefact. Just do not confuse owning the object with hearing the music.
The soul reissue labels that set the standard
The Numero Group
Chicago-based, founded in the early 2000s, and the label that set the standard everyone else is measured against. Numero’s approach is closer to a research institution than a record company: they track down the master tapes, interview the surviving participants, photograph the ephemera, and publish the results as a package with a book-length essay attached.
Their Eccentric Soul series is the reason most people know the name. Each volume reconstructs a single forgotten label, often a tiny operation that pressed a few hundred copies of a handful of singles in one American city before folding. What you get is not a compilation of hits but a portrait of a local scene.
Start with: any Eccentric Soul volume that catches your eye. There is no wrong entry point.
Good for: context, depth, physical packaging, the feeling that someone took this seriously.
Ace Records and Kent
London-based, and the most important British operation in this field by a distance. Ace has been licensing American soul and R&B since the 1970s, and its Kent imprint is the definitive source for northern soul and deep soul compilations.
Where Numero reconstructs individual labels, Kent works thematically: by city, by producer, by mood, by dancefloor. Their sleeve notes are written by people who were in the room, and their licensing is meticulous. For anyone trying to learn the northern soul canon, Kent compilations are the most efficient education available.
Good for: breadth, curation, and the sheer volume of material — there are hundreds of titles.
Light in the Attic
Seattle. Broader in scope than the pure soul labels, covering psych, folk and Japanese ambient alongside soul and funk, but their soul reissues are beautifully done and their catalogue is a reliable education in how a reissue should be presented.
The diggers
The next tier are labels built around one person’s obsession with finding records nobody else has found.
Athens of the North
Run by Euan Fryer out of Edinburgh, and the most consistently exciting reissue operation in the UK. Athens specialises in genuinely obscure American soul, funk, disco and gospel from the 1970s, much of it privately pressed material that never had proper distribution in the first place.
The appeal is that Athens finds things you have not heard. Where the bigger archival labels work through known catalogues, Fryer is turning up records that were effectively invisible. The hit rate is high and the pressing quality is good.
Good for: discovery. If you already know the canon, this is where you go next.
Tramp Records
German, prolific, and focused on raw funk and soul 45s from the deepest end of the American independent scene. Tramp’s compilations tend toward the rough and the heavy rather than the sweet, and their taste runs to drums.
Jazzman Records
UK. As the name suggests they started in jazz, but their soul and funk output — particularly the 45s — has been essential for two decades. Strong on the overlap between funk, jazz and library music.
Now-Again
Founded by Egon, formerly of Stones Throw, and operating at the intersection of reissue archaeology and hip-hop sample culture. Particularly strong on non-American material: Zambian rock, Turkish funk, Brazilian soul. If your interest extends past the United States, start here.
Mr Bongo
Brighton. Best known for Brazilian reissues but with a substantial soul, funk and Latin catalogue, and a 45s series that has introduced a lot of people to records they would never have found otherwise. Reliably good taste, and priced sensibly.
Soul Jazz Records
London, and considerably broader than soul despite the name — reggae, disco, house, punk and Brazilian music all feature. Their compilations tend to be thematic and argumentative, making a case for a scene or a sound rather than just collecting tracks. Strong sleeve design and reliable curation.
Sundazed
New York state. More garage and psych than soul, but their commitment to mono mixes and period-correct mastering has influenced how the whole reissue field thinks about fidelity.
The new-recordings labels
A slightly different category, and one worth understanding, because the line between reissue and new release has blurred.
Daptone Records
Brooklyn. Not a reissue label at all: Daptone records new music, to tape, using period equipment and methods. The results sound like 1968 because they were made the way 1968 was made, not because of a filter. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and Charles Bradley are the flagship acts, and the house band’s playing is the best argument anyone has made that this music is a living tradition rather than a museum piece.
Big Crown Records
Also Brooklyn, founded by people who came out of the Daptone orbit. Slightly more modern in outlook, with a strong line in contemporary soul that borrows from hip-hop production without losing the band.
Colemine Records
Ohio. Consistently excellent modern soul and funk 45s, and a genuinely likeable operation. Their singles series is one of the best standing orders in current music.
Timmion Records
Helsinki, which surprises people. Timmion’s house band records deep soul that stands comparison with the American originals, and their production discipline is remarkable. Proof that the tradition travels.
What separates a good reissue from a bad one
Not every release badged as archival is worth owning, and the gap between the best soul reissue labels and the worst is mostly a matter of process.
Not all licensed reissues are equal. Four things decide whether a release is worth owning.
The source
Best case is the original master tape. Next best is a first-generation copy or a production master. Worst case is a needle-drop from a vinyl copy, which is what you get when the tapes are lost — and for small 1960s labels, the tapes are very often lost, destroyed in a fire, or sitting in a lock-up nobody can locate.
A needle-drop is not automatically bad. A careful transfer from a mint original, properly de-clicked, can sound excellent. What matters is that the label tells you. The good ones do, in the notes, because it is part of the story.
The mastering
The commonest failure in reissue culture is over-compression: squashing a 1967 recording to modern loudness levels, which flattens exactly the dynamics that make it good. Soul records live on the gap between a whispered verse and a full-throated chorus. Remove that and you have removed the performance.
Listen for whether the quiet parts are actually quiet. If everything sits at the same volume, somebody has been heavy-handed.
The research
This is where archival labels earn their premium. Who played on it, who wrote it, where it was cut, what happened to the artist afterwards — this information is not decorative. It is often the only surviving documentation of the people involved, and once the last participants die it cannot be recovered. Labels that do this work are performing a public service.
The pressing
Vinyl quality varies enormously and has got worse as demand has outstripped pressing plant capacity. Heavier is not automatically better; what matters is a quiet, well-centred, non-dished record. Labels with a good reputation here generally keep it.
Formats: what to buy and when
The 7-inch. The native format for most of this music. A soul single was designed as a two-and-a-half-minute object with an A-side and a B-side, and a lot of the great B-sides only make sense in that context. Reissue 45s are also the cheapest way in — most of the labels above run singles at a sensible price.
The compilation LP. The most efficient education available. A well-sequenced compilation is an argument about a scene made by someone who knows it, and you learn more from one of those than from a dozen random purchases.
The box set. For when you have decided a particular label or city is your thing. Expensive, usually worth it if the research is good, and generally the format where the archival labels do their best work.
Digital. There is no shame in this. Buying a compilation on Bandcamp puts money in the same place and lets you listen on the bus. The romance of the object is real but it is not the music. Several of the labels above put their full catalogue on Bandcamp, which is the single best way to explore before committing to vinyl.
How to spot a bootleg
Unlicensed reissues are everywhere, particularly on the northern soul side where demand massively outstrips legitimate supply. Some are obvious; some are made to deceive. Things to check:
- No label information. A legitimate reissue names the licensor somewhere. Bootlegs are usually vague about where the music came from.
- Sourced from vinyl, not tape. Listen for surface noise baked into the transfer, or a dull, over-compressed top end. A good reissue from tape has air in it.
- Suspiciously complete rarity sets. If a release collects twenty of the rarest records in the scene on one disc, nobody licensed twenty rare records from twenty defunct labels. That is a bootleg.
- No credits, no notes, no catalogue number. Archival labels are proud of their research and put it on the sleeve.
- Price too good. Licensing costs money. A brand new pressing at a fraction of the usual price has skipped a step.
Discogs is the practical tool here: check the release page before buying, and read the comments, where the collector community is usually blunt about which pressings are legitimate.
Where to buy
Direct from the label. Most of these labels sell from their own sites or Bandcamp. The margin goes to the people doing the work, and you often get first refusal on limited pressings.
Specialist shops. Independent record shops with a real soul section will steer you better than any algorithm. Ask them what has come in.
Bandcamp Fridays and label subscriptions. Several of these labels run 45 subscription services. If you trust a label’s taste, a subscription is the cheapest way to build a collection and the most useful thing you can do for a small operation.
Discogs, carefully. Excellent for finding specific items, less good for discovery, and you need to know what you are looking at.
Building a collection that makes sense
A few principles that will save you money once you are buying from several soul reissue labels at once.
Buy compilations first, singles second. A good compilation is a curated argument about a scene. Twenty random singles is a pile of records.
Follow labels, not genres. Once you find a label whose taste matches yours, their catalogue becomes a reading list. This is far more efficient than searching by style.
Buy what you will play. The collector’s disease is acquiring records as assets. If you are not putting it on, you do not want it, whatever the market says.
Do not chase the same records everyone else is chasing. The most rewarding part of this music is how much of it there is. For every famous rarity there are fifty excellent records nobody is bidding on, and the reissue labels above exist precisely to find them.
A first year, in order
If you are starting from nothing, this is the sequence we would follow.
Months one to three: buy three compilations. One Kent, one Numero, one Athens of the North. You now have three different arguments about what this music is, made by three sets of people who know. Play them until you have opinions.
Months four to six: follow the one you liked most. Go into that label’s catalogue properly. This is where taste forms — not by sampling widely, but by going deep enough with one curator to learn why they choose what they choose.
Months seven to nine: add a singles subscription. Colemine or one of the other 45 series. A record a month you did not choose is the best correction for the collector’s tendency to buy only what is already familiar.
Months ten to twelve: start buying originals, selectively. By now you know what you actually listen to. Buy originals of the records you have played most, not the ones with the highest book value. You will get this wrong occasionally and that is part of it.
The thing to avoid in year one is the auction site. It rewards knowing exactly what you want, and at the start you do not.
Frequently asked questions
Are reissues worth buying if I already have the originals?
Often, yes, for sound quality alone. A new cut from a clean tape source will usually beat a worn original, and most archival reissues come with research you cannot get anywhere else.
Which of these soul reissue labels should I start with?
Kent if you want breadth and the northern soul canon. Numero Group if you want depth and context. Athens of the North if you want to hear things you have never heard.
Is Daptone a reissue label?
No. Daptone records new music using vintage methods and equipment. It sounds archival because of how it is made, not because it is old.
How do I know a reissue is licensed?
Look for named licensors and publishing credits on the sleeve, proper catalogue numbers, and detailed notes. Check the Discogs page before buying. Legitimate labels document their sources because it is the point of what they do.