Serge Santiágo – Black Edits

I have mixed feelings about commercially released disco re-edits. Most of them are basically bootlegs, and this one seems to be no exception. Don't Baciotti/Forrest and Simonetti/Meo deserve a cut of the proceeds from this release? I don't have any way of knowing for sure, but it's pretty widely assumed that the re-edit scene consists of mostly unlicensed releases.

On the other hand, I get the impression there was a lot of backstabbing in the record industry, with much fighting among the record companies, publishers, performers, and songwriters over money and ownership, resulting in a lot of bad blood and conflicting info, and making it impossible to legally license any new releases like this. Maybe the only way some of these edits can get on wax is for someone like Serge to be ballsy and just put out a record without permission and hope that small pressing quantities makes it fly under the radar, or at least be not worth anyone's time to fight about. Besides, it cost money to make and distribute the records; surely at least they can be sold for enough to break even?

Yet I still feel like I shouldn't spend money on it, no matter how good it is. And man, the edit of "Fear" is damn good. It's a gentle remix, preserving the full vocal and making it sound a little more modern, but without adding things that sound out-of-place, and without resorting to any of the lame re-edit clichés that would turn the song into a plodding series of instrumental loops. I really want this record...

Like I said, mixed feelings.