Abraham

One recent development is the plethora of Abraham/Clocktower releases showing up in record stores now actually sealed in shrink; they used to be new but open. The covers still look scanned, and until I hear differently I'm going to assume that you can still hear that they are rips from previous vinyl releases. Still avoiding Abraham/Clocktower.

Pretty sketchy pressing and source quality. I have a couple Abraham LPs I picked up prior to learning the recent history (outlined nicely below). Not only does the vinyl itself have audible surface noise, but the source production has yet more background noise (meaning you can hear the vinyl surface noise before the tracks start, then there's a secondary layer of noise once the track kicks in/ends).
Dubious indeed.

The Abraham label has become infamous for bootlegging, but it did start out as a legitimate label during its original era, from the late 1970s to about 1990. During this time the label released a series of reggae LPs with the AALP prefix as well as a series of 12" singles with the AZA and A2A prefixes, which were primarily Trinidadian and British calypso/soca singles. These releases were properly licensed (albeit from the producers, not the artists) and even included some original productions, most notably Demo Cates' various saxophone albums, which sold very well here in Canada.

It seems that at some point after 1990, Abraham acquired the rights to the Clocktower Records catalogue from the wife or relatives of the deceased Brad Osbourne, and since then they've been reissuing Clocktower material, distributing their releases to record stores out a white van. The problem there, of course, is that many Clocktower releases were of dubious provenance to begin with, and even if Brad Osbourne did have the rights to the material, it's not clear that his successors could sell those rights to someone else, or that the rights would last forever. For that reason, this label has been denounced as a bootleg operation. Regardless, the Abraham van still plies the streets of Toronto, and seemingly every record store in the city (and even a lot of small-time record show guys) are happy to stock these releases.

From a recent google group:

"PEOPLE, this guy is a PIRATE. This guy is pirating stuff without author's authorization. FOR EXAMPLE: HE has been pirating several records produced and financed by my husband, Sydney Crooks, for years in CANADA. He has exchanged all of the album art information and names himself as the record's producer. PEOPLE, how could such a thing happen?

SHAMELESS PIRATE!!! PREPARE YOURSELF THE PROCESS WILL ARRIVE AT YOUR ADDRESS!!!
SYDNEY CROOKS is alive, has a family, children, wife, nephew and lawyers!!!"

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.music.reggae/c/-Lmj9M7DGTI

File under AVOID. This "label" has a habit of "reissuing" well-known albums with different artist names and album titles, then jumbling up the tracklisting to make it seem like a new album. All the more confusing because some of the albums in their catalog are "real" - basically holdovers from when the original Clocktower label was in business. Maybe they do really hold the rights to the old Clocktower LPs but the other business they are doing overshadows that greatly. Not to mention pressings are average at best, with horrible quality jackets and printing. If you are a reggae or dub fan, there are many other labels doing good work that deserve the IMHO.