Grand Twelve Inch Dance Seventies and Eighties

The first three months of 2017 have been most generous to collectors of classic dance music from the Seventies and Eighties, with no less than 7 multi-disc collections being released from these three ongoing series: Demon/Crimson's Twelve Inch Eighties, Rhino's 12 Inch Dance, and Ben Liebrand's Grand 12-Inches. Many of these tracks are available on prior collections from series like Hi-Bias's Retro:Active, Blank & Jones present so8os, Epic's Club Epic, Universal Music's 12"/80s or Essex Entertainment's The Best Disco Album in the Universe so the big draw of these new albums is (hopefully) noticeable, improved fidelity when compared to the prior releases at perhaps a more affordable price as some of those older, hard-to-find discs are getting a little pricey.

The newest series of the three, Twelve Inch Eighties launched with the release of a pair of triple-disc collections in March 2016: People Hold On and You Spin Me Round. The label has continued to release a couple of albums in the series every three or four months, all three disc sets and all focused on tracks from the Eighties, including the January 2017 titles, Hold Me Now and When The Going Gets Tough, seen near the end of the video below:

At the end of March 2017, Crimson jumps back a decade to launch the Twelve Inch Seventies series (or as they call it over in the UK, "range" - as in Twelve Inch Seventies range) with two releases: More, More, More and Boogie Wonderland.

Rhino UK began their 12 Inch Dance series with the 3CD collection 80s Groove in June 2014. Three more releases followed in 2014 and three more in 2015. After releasing just 80s Pop in 2016, the series expanded with the release of Australian 80s Pop in February 2017 and 80s Remix in March 2017.

Finally, the granddaddy of them all is world-renown DJ Ben Liebrand, whose Grand 12-Inches series in conjunction with Sony Music Netherlands has been putting out four-disc collections personally curated and remastered by Liebrand from the original or best masters available since 2004. In his quest to preserve the music, Liebrand openly solicits hard-to-find original master tapes in advance of his projects as well as offering a unique, ongoing update service for those who purchase the Grand 12-Inches albums.

For a small fee and photographic proof of owning a Grand 12-Inch set bought elsewhere (proof is forgiven if discs are purchased through his website), you gain access to any new and improved masters as well as different mixes and versions via lossless downloads. I, for one, would love to see this sort of service expanded and used by others. The possibilities are truly endless.

In February 2017, Grand 12-Inches 15 was released with 40 tracks across the four discs. The digital update has 21 tracks. As is always the case with Grand 12-Inches albums, there is no rhyme or reason to the tracks included though if you follow the link above, Ben gives us minimal liner notes and a tiny glimpse into his process.

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Let me know in the Comments if you guys are planning to or have picked up any of these collections and what your thoughts on them are as far as sound quality and overall value.

***as with most Spotify re-creations we do, there are omissions, substitutions, and judgment calls.***