The Three Degrees – New Dimensions

One of the highlights in the discography of the phenomenal The Three Degrees girls. “New Dimensions” is packed with 5 lush Giorgio Moroder-produced disco bangers, with B2 being a nice but less interesting soul ballad, by the hands of Frank Musker. The glorious instrumentation really comes to life on this amazing pressing. Top notch music!

5/5

SO disappointed with the CD re-release of this timeless album. Track order was changed from the original vinyl release, obliterating the flawless transitions from "Givin' Up, Givin' In" to "Looking for Love," something I didn't realize before purchasing it.

A cracking electro-disco fest from the girls of Philadelphia led by the ever genius hand of Giorgio Moroder. New Dimensions being one of his greatest projects of the late 70's. Every track is outstanding and the production is sublime. It sounds especially good on vinyl, helped by those big wide tracks. Side 1 is notably powerful due to the amazing segues between the three thundering tracks. Here there has to be a word of warning. Avoid the US vinyl version on Ariola-America. Side 1's continuous mix has been butchered by altering the running order and spoiling each track's progression in to the next. Track 2 & 3 have been swapped, making a complete mess of the flow which has a fade out on track 2 and an abrubt start to track 3. I have no idea why this happened or who made the decision to tamper so heavily with such a powerful suite of music. I can't imagine Giorgio Moroder being happy about such tampering with his production. The UK issue is the best version in of presentation, sound and continuous mix. I'm not sure about other countries and labels, but would imagine European versions are the same as UK.
This album is very dynamic and is impressive not just to fans of disco. I think the musicians are Giorgio's house band Munich Machine or at least some of the and orchestral arrangements slip in beautifully with synthesisers and electro sounds. This combined with strong vocals and harmonies from Sheila, Helen and Valerie makes New Dimensions one of the best albums of this genre ever made. The recent BBR remaster CD thankfully is the correct running order and sounds not half bad for a CD. But the UK vinyl for me is the dogs biscuits!