AOR reissue label recommendations (besides Rock Candy)

schlockmania

Besides Rock Candy, what are your favorite reissue labels that traffic in AOR material?

In between GDM's closing and reopening, I stumbled across a few that have yielded good results for me. Here's a quick rundown...

MelodicRock Classics: a spin-off of an existing label devoted to remasters of niche AOR material with limited pressings (usually around 500 copies). Since the releases are small, they take interesting gambles like putting out unreleased albums (Tom DeLuca's 2nd album sessions) and big compendiums of demos by writers like Clif Magness (a 4 disc set), Jesse Harms (a 6 disc set) and Robin & Judithe Randall (an 8 disc set!). They just announced a series of vault releases for Van Stephenson, including his debut album CHINA GIRL and a collection of demos for songs recorded by other artists.

https://melodicrockclassics.com/index.html

AOR Heaven: I've heard talk that this outfit, connected to a popular e-retailer, is about to shut down. It's a shame because I just picked up some cool reissues from them, like a double-disc reissue of Alien's debut album and albums by Stephen Crane, Brian Island, etc.

https://www.aorheaven.com/index.php/englisch_b/unsere-cd-s.html

Bad Reputation: they put out an interesting mix of AOR and '80s glam material as well as some interesting Aussie and South African obscurities. I've gotten reissues from Saraya, Babylon A.D., The Boyzz, etc. from them.

https://badreputation.fr/epages/box28314.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/box28314/Categories/STORE/REEDITIONS

Steelheart Memories: imagine a limited pressing label that is like Rock Candy but on smaller budgets and often releasing unique sets for bands that issued demos but never full albums. I've seen a few of their older releases covered here and picked up one of their more recent releases, an album by Monro. If you collect demos by obscure glam acts, this is the label for you.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063510190425

Metallic Blue Records: they put out an interesting array of super-obscure AOR and '80s glam material, with a unique focus on bands that came from Utah. I picked up one disc from this label, a reissue of material by Exposure, a Utah band that mixed new wave and AOR, topped with cool female vox a la Storm.

https://www.metallicbluerecords.com/

Would love to read some recommendations from posters here re: other reissue labels exploring similar territory...

gdazegod

Eonian Records is another, focusing on glam, sleaze and hair metal.

https://eonianrecords.com

FNA Records are another who do the glam, sleaze, hair thing.

https://fnarecords.net/

--
Yes Don, that Exposure album you mention is in our 2020 section. I'm sure there's more Metallic Blue releases for us to write about.

gdazegod

Iconoclassic Records came across my radar today. Their back catalogue is chock full of 70's releases. Artists include:

Poco
The Tubes
Mountain
Jeff Beck
Dwight Twilley
Jimi Jamison
Rocky Burnette
Canned Heat
Grand Funk Railroad
The Guess Who
Hot Tuna
Isley Brothers
Jefferson Airplane
The Knack
Mott The Hoople
Robin Trower
John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band
Carl Wilson

Average price seems to be around the US$12 range, but I wasn't able to check on postage pricing as this will be different for each country/region.

The catalogue appears to limited at this point, while it appears that some CD's are already out of print.

https://iconoclassicrecords.com

schlockmania

Thanks for the responses, George. I can vouch for Iconoclassic: their expanded Tubes remasters are all good and their Guess Who discs are the best versions of those albums, with nice-sounding remasters and fantastic liner notes.