Monday, February 19, 2024

Retrospect Records: A Retrospective

 

Logo appears under fair use and label may no longer exist. Courtesy Discogs.

    Retrospect Records, an indie label and seller based in Las Vegas and St George, UT, seems to have gone out of business. They were once one of the biggest independent metal labels in the world. I also knew them for selling used CDs like anyone else. They offered bootlegs and Russian pirates, as well as artists not easily found in the US like Gary Moore and Magnum (which led me to write this). I've bought IQ, Pallas, Yes and solo Rick Wakeman for myself and Queensrÿche and maybe Billy Squier for Boris (I would've bought even more if money weren't an object!). Whether the pandemic or just the economy since did them in, it's an all too familiar scene these days across the board. As a label, they may not have had the resources that even other indies have. Fish and his label are one thing since there's no one else on it. Retrospect are another since they signed dozens of obscure artists like Mystery (not the French Canadian band I know, since generic names can mean two or more people with a conflict).

    Like a regular news outlet, I reached out to the owner for comment, something I don't typically do. I simply asked what happened as a past customer and not as a blogger. I haven't ordered from them in over ten years time and they haven't had anything new since at least April of last year. The owner told me that he stopped renewing his subscription to the host service, thinking it wasn't worth a bother anymore. Even a free service is not on. We'll just have to let this one go as there are plenty of other places to order from and there's nothing on the label even worth reselling if you ask me.

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