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Audiophile Love for Less: Unpacking Rhino’s New ‘Reserve’ Series

With their new ‘Reserve’ series, Rhino Records aims to bring audiophile-quality records to the masses.

By Jim Allen

Rhino Records Rhino Reserve Series Feature Album Artwork

“We can print Rhino Reserve reissue series origin story.

Offering audiophile-quality vinyl at lower prices, Rhino Reserve kicked off with two January releases, Funkadelic guitar wizard Hazel during his too-short lifetime.

The roots of the Reserve lie in Rhino’s slightly more upmarket Coltrane’s Sound, and The Cars’ debut sold out within a few weeks. Everybody seems to be really loving that series. Somebody actually started a Facebook High Fidelity group.”

On Discogs, the High Fidelity series has been well-received as well. The label’s Greatest Hits of 2024 awards. 

Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs
Eddie Hazel
2025
P.Funk, Psychedelic, Acid Rock
Vinyl, LP
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But Milligan and company found that the price necessitated by the High Fidelity releases’ upscale packaging and pressing also limited their reissue choices. “We really wanted to do the Toussaint record as a High Fidelity,” he explains, “but we kind of realized that with the sort of stuff that was selling with High Fidelity, that was gonna be a little tough to do.” Thus Rhino Reserve was born — a series with comparable audio quality, 180 gram vinyl, packaging that’s faithful to the original jackets, and a lower price that allows for less mainstream selections. “I think the Reserve gives us an opportunity to touch some titles that we wouldn’t be able to get up to the [sales] level of High Fidelity,” says Milligan.

The Toussaint and Hazel LPs were mastered by Bernie Grundman Mastering and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in Oxnard, California. The plan going forward is for Matt Lutthans to do the cutting at The Mastering Lab in Salina, Kansas, but he wasn’t available for the initial releases, so Bellman stepped in.

“Chris has done a ton of stuff for us,” says Milligan. “Chris has done all Craft, their high-end stuff, and people really see him as an up-and-coming guy. We thought we’d do something that was unique to this series.”

Rhino’s first foray into pressing at Fidelity bodes well for the future. “I have to say we’re impressed — no pun intended,” laughs Milligan. “They really sound great. Not to be a geek, but you pull the record out and you can just feel the edges are perfectly rounded and stuff, it’s a quality thing.”

Suggestions for the Reserve can come from anywhere in the company, but Milligan’s A&R team is tasked with getting everything going. Vetting the demand for out-of-print titles is an important part of the process. 

“I use Discogs all the time,” he says, “I have it open all day long. I’m always referring to it. We’ll look and go, ‘Oh, there’s $20 copies out there,’ maybe we can’t sell records if there’s not a huge demand and there’s a lot of supply. But then we’ll look at something like that Allen Toussaint record and it goes for hundreds of dollars.”

Of course, the main driver is the albums’ artistic status. In the case of 1975’s Southern Nights, with help from the Meters and others, Toussaint’s third solo album marked a forward move in both songwriting and production compared to the more straightforward New Orleans-inflected funk/soul feel of its predecessor. 

“The record is very lush in spots,” agrees Milligan, “it doesn’t sound like a typical Meters record, it has its own character. And his songs and arrangements are amazing, so it’s kind of like a journey.”

Southern Nights
Allen Toussaint
2025
Rhythm & Blues, Funk
Vinyl, LP
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Southern Nights has always been beloved by aficionados, but its initial commercial impact was nil. Ironically, it became the source of one of Glen Campbell’s biggest hits when the country star’s version of the title track hit No. 1 in 1977. “I’m glad that Glen Campbell doing that made Allen Toussaint some money,” says Milligan, “but it’s a very different take on the song. Allen Toussaint’s is very dreamy-sounding, it’s got that vocal through the Leslie [organ speaker] and stuff like that, and the Glen Campbell one is very bouncy and upbeat.”

Games, Dames & Guitar Thangs came at a transitional time in Eddie Hazel’s life. He’d been Parliament-Funkadelic’s six-string firebrand from day one, but by this time he had become a journeyman. For all the guitar lightning he unleashed with P-Funk, his 1977 solo album gave Hazel the ultimate opportunity to strut his stuff.

On his cover of Maggot Brain.” “It’s kind of a perfect vehicle to do what he does,” concurs Milligan, “being psychedelic and over the top. This is his spotlight.”

Hazel is backed by the of his P-Funk family, but the tracks are closer to the band’s older, trippier approach than their more funk-focused late ‘70s sound. That might be part of the reason the record didn’t make record store cash s ring. That [psych-funk flavor] was not really in vogue at that point,” agrees Milligan. “This record really is more like Maggot Brain than what the band was doing at the time this came out.”

The mastering on both records boasts the kind of dynamics and definition bound to bop you over the head from the first notes and stand out from the ‘70s pressings. Rhino Reserve is off to an exciting start, but Milligan isn’t allowed to reveal what’s coming down the pike. There are plans for releases tied to Black Music Month and Pride Month in June, and then the 75th anniversary of Elektra Records. 

“We’re hoping to surprise people with some of what we’re coming up with,” Milligan says. “We’re hoping to have fun with it and get some cool things out that people haven’t been able to get for a while.” 

Jim Allen has contributed to MOJO, Uncut, Billboard, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Record Collector, Bandcamp Daily, NPR, Rock & Roll Globe, and many more, and written liner notes for reissues on Sundazed Records, Shout! Factory, and others. He’s also a veteran singer/songwriter with several albums to his credit.

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