One by one, the major players of the reggae scene in France are disappearing. Record shops are shutting up shop one after another, and things are hardly better for labels and record companies. After Nocturne, the main distributor of reggae albums in France, which closed its doors in 2008, it is now the turn of the prolific label Makasound to bow out. An outcome made inevitable by the relentless fall in record sales and by an industry that is slowly but surely squeezing out independent labels.
The commercial court, which ordered the liquidation last Friday, has thus put an end to the great adventure of Nicolas Maslowski and Romain Germa. Makasound is the comeback of Winston McAnuff (and the discovery of his son Matthew McAnuff), the acoustic Inna De Yard series sponsored by Earl Chinna Smith, and above all a hell of a lot of great reissued records: The Meditations, Merger, Carl Harvey, Alton Ellis, Knowledge, Black Roots, but also the discoveries Jaqee, Takana Zion and Steve Newland, or the "A place called Jamaica" compilations… there are too many releases to count that have thrilled the editorial team over the years.