London-based physical and digital distribution company.
Founder and managing director: Dan Hill (14).
Business affairs and developments: Jamie Cruisey.
Catalogue, licensing and A&R: Brian G. Morrison.
Vinyl sales and catalogue: Dave Congreve.
Listed on some releases as Aboveboarddist.co.uk.
Taana Gardner – Taana Gardner the artwork on the 2020 reissue is absolutely awful it's dark and dull, pixellised it looks like a bad scan of the CD artwork or a reprint of the orginal 12'' pictured with a smartphone in low resolution. utter crap https://www.discogs.com/Taana-Gardner-Taana-Gardner/release/15416602 I was so happy when I read this hard to find (at a decent price) record would be reissued... but when I held it in my hands today, I was so disappointed. I purchased it because I wanted to support my local record store during this pandemy ... but deep inside I feel like I've been scammed by AB DIST because I don't get how it's possible to print such a bad quality sleeve in 2020. I have no doubt the sound must be awful too after all I've read here. It's still sealed. If the record agrees to refund me, I'll be delighted to ship it back and buy an original pressing ... even if there is a ringwear to sleeve!
these guys always say the same thing: taken from dats and remastered. so why do they always sound piss poor? Many of the early 90s house reissues they flooded the market with suck. if you want a track badly enough, save up for it coz one original will give you more pleasure than a bag full of these.
Have to say that I agree with most of the comments here. I picked up a bunch of these reissues a while back but generally gave them away or sold them as the quality was so poor. I love good quality reissues but these just sound terrible and don't feel as if they're done with any love. Hard not to conclude that it is a pure money making exercise as cynical as "chiwax" and their associated labels which seem to flood the market all the time. Pure greed with very little benefit to the consumer.
Apparently many artists never got paid for the reissues here. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I just can't imagine everything has been licenced properly given the amount of releases every month. Also, many of the releases have terrible quality (e.g. Westend, Salsoul reissues) which all makes them questionable. To me this looks like a quick 'n dirty mass-reproduction service of popular dance/club music.
Generally terrible quality all around with the reissues through these guys. Direct vinyl rips, poor mastering, corners cut at all points, and it tells. For example, the reissue of 3.2.6 "Falling" on Muzique (https://www.discogs.com/3-2-6-Falling/release/6374355) has a skip in the actual audio of the A1, meaning the original record that they cut it from had a skip in it. Now they either left it in on purpose, or didn't notice that it was there. I don't know which is worse. Buyer beware when these guys are involved. I've been dissatisfied too many times and won't take the chance any more.
2021 edit: Respect for the below response AB! I've picked up other Above Board releases over the last few years and the quality has actually been very good, so keep up the quality control work!
F.D.M.
June 23, 2020the artwork on the 2020 reissue is absolutely awful
it's dark and dull, pixellised it looks like a bad scan of the CD artwork or a reprint of the orginal 12'' pictured with a smartphone in low resolution.
utter crap
https://www.discogs.com/Taana-Gardner-Taana-Gardner/release/15416602
I was so happy when I read this hard to find (at a decent price) record would be reissued... but when I held it in my hands today, I was so disappointed.
I purchased it because I wanted to support my local record store during this pandemy ... but deep inside I feel like I've been scammed by AB DIST because I don't get how it's possible to print such a bad quality sleeve in 2020. I have no doubt the sound must be awful too after all I've read here.
It's still sealed. If the record agrees to refund me, I'll be delighted to ship it back and buy an original pressing ... even if there is a ringwear to sleeve!