6 Great Vinyl Reissues from Spring/Summer 2025
It’s widely believed that vinyl purchases began increasing worldwide around 2007, and during and after the pandemic, those numbers soared exponentially. Heavyweight is a column that helps you sort through the worthy and eliminate the meh. Each edition will feature a “Dusty Fingers” pick—something so incredible that you won’t believe it until you hear it. Join us as we indulge in your favorite vinyl addiction.
This is Heavyweight.
Note: When you buy something through our affiliate links, Treble receives a commission. All albums we cover are chosen by our editors and contributors.
Roy Haynes – Hip Ensemble
It’s the whole package, ya dig? Swing, hard-bop, spiritual, and jazz-funk too: Roy Haynes began his drumming career playing behind Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Lester Young, and John Coltrane. Then he became his own institution. Hip Ensemble, a comprehensive smattering, that specific “release the hounds” fully powered showcase, displayed all sides of Haynes’ creativity. Originally released in 1971 on Bob Shad’s Mainstream Records, reissued here on the French imprint Wewantsounds, the Ensemble presents full bounce and melody on “Satan’s Mysterious Feeling,” what a freakin title by the way, and the completely out-there wonked-up funk on “Roy’s Tune” that operates like it was designed to be sampled for De La Soul’s Stakes Is High.
Hip, indeed.
Listen/Buy: Spotify | Amazon (vinyl)
Lunchbox – Evolver
A lost album from Oakland outfit Lunchbox, Evolver at times feels like Stereolab’s Dots and Loops cooked, boiled and simmered just a bit longer, so the sound, aka flavor, goes more experimental than conventional. Released this April and remastered for the album’s twentieth-ish anniversary, recorded in the couple’s 1990s Oakland basement between stays in Berlin, tour dates in London, and dreamy sojourns up the rugged Mendocino coastline, it traps with ziplock freshness, that time in rock when jangle, electronic, ambient and dub all coagulated into a new pop aesthetic. It feels so damn ’90s and I love it!
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
Odyssey – Odyssey
With cover art that suggests a Rockford Files featuring mischievous hippies plotting something at the beach, Odyssey—the 1972 band released under the short-lived Motown LA-based Mowest label—was exploring musical styles that were quite different from traditional Motown.
This self-titled project juxtaposes Lake Orion, Michigan for Laurel Canyon on shitty seeds; a blend of styles, somewhat possibly mirroring the eclectic sound of the Minnie Ripperton-led funky rock-soul group Rotary Connection. Psychedelic chill tracks alongside spacey country twang and sunshine pop? Stems and seeds, my bad. This innovative approach failed immediately, clearly designed for open-minded formats, DJs years later recognized its adventurous spirit and played it out, knowing it was the vinyl treasure it truly is. With members of The Wrecking Crew and master producer Gene Page collaborating with a group of California hippie rockers, the template was set, nearly 40 years before Khruangbin.
Listen/Buy: Spotify | Turntable Lab (vinyl)
Madlib – WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip
Back when I was cool, skinny, and could eat a carne asada burrito without instantly falling into a food coma, I loved figuring out which track from a new record would set off the dancefloor. At one point, that track was “Yo, Yo Affair Pt 1&2” from WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip by Madlib.
It had hip-hop low-end swing, that bass kit was thumpin’, Jack, coupled with sweet R&B notes that melted like dark chocolate. There was a certain magic to it that got everyone moving in rhythm. Originally released in 2008, WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip felt like a deluxe, enhanced pause tape, infused with unknown smokeables, vibes for days, while predicting that in 15 years, Georgia Anne Muldrow would become a major star with her captivating vocals on “The Plan Pt 1.” Madlib is a genius, but the richness of texture on this? I can hear Lee Scratch, puffing on one, laughing and enjoying this vinyl treat from the celestial nebula.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Turntable Lab (vinyl)
Various Artists – Trax Records: The 40th Anniversary Collection
Before there was glitch, future bass, or even UK garage, there was house. Popularized in Chicago, this genre, born out of disco, is to the EDM industry—which pocketed $12.9 billion last year—what the blues is to rock. Trax Records was launched by Larry Sherman in 1985 from a modest vinyl pressing plant on Chicago’s industrial west side. The label quickly captured the attention of music enthusiasts who were into punk, disco, rock, funk, dub, and jazz—essentially a little bit of everything, creating a soundtrack that continues to represent the many revolutions being fought in this country and around the world, 365 days a year.
To commemorate its 40th anniversary, Trax presents Trax Records: The 40th Anniversary Collection—a vivid, multi-format release that captures the essence of the label’s origins. This collection features iconic tracks such as “Your Love” by Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle, and Marshall Jefferson’s “The House Music Anthem (Move Your Body)”, along with many other genre-defining classics from artists like DJ Pierre, Ron Hardy, Mr. Fingers, Phuture, Maurice Joshua and Screamin’ Rachael.
Listen: Spotify
Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings and Food (Super Deluxe Edition)
$174.98, not even including tax, is how much this 4xLP, 4×7-inch, plus 60-page hardcover book, with previously unseen photos and new liner notes with recollections from Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison, is going to run you. As outlined in the press release, “The collection captures a pivotal moment in their evolution and marks the first of three albums produced with Brian Eno.”
With Byrne putting out a new album and tour this year while Harrison tours the country, showing the Stop Making Sense film, and speaking about it afterward, this is the bucket of time where all members of Talking Heads are open to revisiting these moments for the almighty dollar. Albeit a warning sign or good thing, I guess it’s worth the extra scratch. But they just may be taking us ALL to the river.
Listen/Buy: Spotify | Turntable Lab (vinyl)
Dusty Fingers Pick
Johnny Hammond – Gears
I keep a copy of this in my record bag for all occasions and make sure several record stores in San Francisco have backups available to me with a 24-hour notice.
Why? Gears from 1975, reissued by Craft in 2022, by master jazz keyboardist Johnny Hammond, produced by Larry and Fonce Mizell, was played extensively at legendary DJ David Mancuso’s renowned New York City parties at The Loft because it informed everyone that the jazz band preceded the DJ as a device that made people move.
Ride with those six-minute-long “Los Conquistadores Chocolatés” Peter Piper flutes that run flush into high-intensity piano runs, twisted wah-wah guitars, and then smash and drop into the dam-bursting Cadillac groove that drives this out-of-the-box, disco-funk-jazz masterwork to unseen heights.
With the Mizells on board, Smith created Gears, a paragon of a project that melted genre beliefs, pissed-off rigid members of the snooty jazz society, and added much-needed groove and swing to the contemporaneous metronome four-on-the-floor R&B disco scene of the time. Harvey Mason, Chuck Rainey, and Jerry Peters—outstanding musicians—added their touch to this pivotal album as well.
Gears is so landmark; it precedes and surpasses disco on the same record.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Turntable Lab (vinyl)
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