Taking sides: Love and Dancing vs Nightdubbing

I've never even heard of Night Dubbing! I'll hafta investigate tonight.

It'll have to be bloody good to be better than Love and Dancing though.

Leee John is all over the early issues of The Face that I have. Were Imagination a real big deal at the time?

Even I am not old enough to answer that question properly, but they were big in chart terms.

That's why I thought the TS was appropriate, both huge chart successes who then put out groundbreaking remix albums, which they slightly disowned (freebie and mid-price special respectively).

Outside of dub, are there any earlier remix albums?

The style is actually very different. Love and Dancing is all about cut-up tape splicing, whereas Nigtdubbing sounds like it was done on the mixing desk, with dropouts and echo etc.

Anyway, I LOVE them both.

(freebie and mid-price special respectively)

I must have been stiffed when I paid my £3.49 for Love and Dancing way back when.

I remember Captain Sensible loving Nightdubbing at the time, saying it was "extremely psychedelic"...

I must have been stiffed when I paid my £3.49 for Love and Dancing way back when.

Erm, I had it in my head that it was originally sold as a free limited edition thing with early copies of Dare, but that may be complete rubbish. I'm sure I read it somewhere.

It IS extremely psychedelic!

I'm pretty amazed I've never seen Night Dubbing in a charity shop seeing as it got to no 9 in the charts. I've seen LOADS of copies of Love and Dancing.

both of these records are charity shop staples.

love and dancing pwns nightdubbing from a great height though. beats are just so much crisper and the sound design is impeccable. it has aged incredibly well.

I much prefer Love and Dancing although I love both bands. Just about my favorite sound of the 1980s was that percussive effect that hangs in the middleground of "Things That Dreams Are Made Of" about halfway through and then comes to the fore with the "New York, ice cream..." bit as everything else drops out. It has a tough, rubbery sound, like a Tupperware container being perpetually opened. Like all great dubs/remixes/whatnot, it really fucks with notions of fore/middle/background, top/bottom, melody/beat, etc. and where you place yourself in the mix.

I've never heard of Nightdubbing, though I've gone through about 4 copies of Love and Dancing. I wear them out, though I gave one dupe to Prince Language in exchange for free entrance to Afrikaa Bambaata djing the Negroclash party years ago.

You carry around copies of Love and Dancing in the hopes of getting into parties for free, Dan???

No, the exchange was planned out well in advance.

Sad truth is, he lost it that night, then later found he already had his own copy anyway.

I'm also a big fan of the Open Your Heart 12", which I think may be the same version as on Love and Dancing but with this silly, fast song tacked onto it.

i've never heard the human league album but a few months back i picked up Nightdubbing on ebay for $3. it hasn't left my turntable's side yet. such a beautiful album.

wait, are we talking about the Imagination remix album? This thread had me believing there was another Human League remix album!

yep

look at the first post. are any of the members of human league black?

After listening to Night Dubbing on my underground ride this morning I gotta say, Love and Dancing by a good margin. Night Dubbing was sounding nice but, y'know, LOVE AND DANCING!

Fwiw, The Rock Yearbook 1984 named Night Dubbing one of the worst album covers of the year: "Inexplicably dull, it sells nothing, least of all the group." (153)

Frankly I don't blame Dan. I wish folks who start threads wouldn't assume everyone else in the world knows what they're talking about. I shouldn't have to google just to find out Nightdubbing is by Imagination.

The version of Body Talk on Night Dubbing is AMAZING.