PRoPaGaNDa YUO fux0rz

A couple years ago, when that Art of Noise reunion (???) record came out, I was given an Art of Noise poncho that's big enough to fit me, my wife, my two cats, and my refrigerator. Funny how early Art of Noise records have worn better than the one released two years ago.

Didn't a Shane MacGowan record come out on ZTT? Why oh why didn't he tour with Seal?

I'm told there's an earlier EP, which I've never heard.

There's also a _later_ album, _1234_, on which Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag were replaced by a sort of blue-eyed soul singer named Betsi Miller, and Howard Jones (!) co-wrote a couple of songs. It's pretty dire, though I like "Heaven Give Me Words." But nowhere near _A Secret Wish_ and _Wishful Thinking_.

A top fact abt this site is that it is the SHIRLEY BASSEY site!!

Same with Art of Noise - every 12" up to and including "Legs" (after that, forget it - the recycling of the classic cuts went beyond a joke, and when they finally did new material, ugh). I particularly like the Beat Box Diversions 1+2 single.

Friend CA is a Claudia Bruken devotee and has all the solo stuff and collaborations. Can't recall any myself, but he swears by them.

However, I am now listening to Act's "Laughter, Tears and Rage" (1988, produced by Lipson and Horn) in an attempt at oneupmanship. I'm not enjoying it that much. I'll be putting on Claudia Brucken's 1991 LP "Love: And A Million Other Things" (produced by, ugh, Pascal Gabriel) later and reporting back. I don't expect to have very much more to say.

just listened to it (it's even better than I remembered) - she sings "installed by the machine" not what I said before.

if i can find a way to trick my blog into giving me link pages for essays there are things i cd put up there also: in particular CONCRETE to SELF-DESTRUCT and the full- on director's cut of the lster bangs/jacques attali throwdown

i'm saying it here to make me do it

(clue: yello are from switzerland)

So that's that, the 96 Theses, Strummer piece, Geezasthetics, Death Rock 2003, The RISE and SPRAWL of DELICIOUS MELODY, Why Influence, and a whole host of others Mark. Thank Grace Jones, you have your book shelves. (I really loved the Buffy article Mark. I didn't hear much murmur round these parts but the e-mail I sent you that just said 'rar' in the body was meant to convey how much I loved it.)

Many, many great clips of Propaganda on "YouTube", some of which suggest they were awesome live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiFbcTauGfk&mode=related&search=

This is the drummer & bassist from Simple Minds, I think? Weirdly it does sound a bit like "Sons & Fascination" is places, so good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS86mjP4NYY

"Dream within a Dream" appears to be played 100% live, and sounds fantastic.

The videos are pretty weird & stylish too:

Anton Cobijn's "Dr Mabuse":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNJ0dbCVXng

Perverse clip for "P.Machinery":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q8G5AQpuxM
I like the bit where Ms Brucken unveils the stuffed snake on the table & she looks v. alarming & v. hott at the same time.

There's loads more.

I've loved loads of music & bands since Propaganda were around, but I don't think anybody has made a record as good as "A Secret Wish" since then. It's so great, still. Every track is super.

(I think I must have been scoffing loads of tartrazine back in '01.)

Also, surprising on the live clips to see how much of the vox are done by Suzanne <3<3<3

Everyone OTM. 'Dr Mabuse' is my favourite 80s song that i didn't hear until the 00s (altho 'Party Fears Two' probably about to usurp it now)

Good lord, live footage on You Tube. I will have to check this out.

I admit I feel like I wore that album out over time, so I'd like to see something fresh like live material.

Watching the first video mentioned on this thread, now and totally dying. Please bury me in this stuff. Oh my GOD. And then when Claudia crashes the party...dying over here. Wow.

We're not bad people in America, at least not all of us, we can't help it that we couldn't watch the freaking TUBE in whatever year this was. Christ.

That Dream Within A Dream video is a killer, too. All that time I never realized that the other woman in the group sang. I thought it was all Claudia on vocals. My eyes are fully open after 20 years.

And then...

SELL HIM YOUR SOUL SELL HIM YOUR SOUL SELL HIM YOUR SOUL NEVER LOOK BACK NEVER LOOK BACK

Just for completeness, the first two parts of the Tube gig Pashmina posted part 3 of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9zp5gznBto&mode=related&search=
"Disziplin" (Throbbing Gristle cover in German!?) and "Dr Mabuse" (Michael is seen in his tailcoat, looking like a percussionist for the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, which of course he also was)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYWTgM-z_nI&mode=related&search=
"p:Machinery" (my #1 on the 80's singles poll a couple of years back, that almighty synth fanfare taking the place of a chorus!)

Thanks Pash for links, revival & starting the thread in the 1st place -- yes A Secret Wish is a staggeringly fantastic thing. It appears this thread should be linked to every time those "who does all ilx like?" threads appear. Also,
Suzanne <3<3<3
otmotmotm sigh.

(Hey I want to read mark s on Yello!)

Thanks for the links, anatol!!

But why is Suzanne less than three, less than three, less than three?

is 3x haert!

(Hey I want to read mark s on Yello!)

Hey I found it apparently: http://www.songsofshirleybassey.co.uk/info/articl10.html

If the one Act album can get a 3-CD reissue treatment, surely -A Secret Wish- deserves it too? I used to have 3 versions of it on CD: US, original UK ZTT release and the 10th anniversary one but since I have all the CD singles I think I sold one as it was redundant. I'm not into remixes but all the permutations of these tracks are worth hearing.

I JUST PULLED OUT THIS ALBUM!!! YOU GUYS ARE DOING IT TO ME! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. OH MY GOD.

Where are Curtis & Trayce when I need them?

"I'm charging you with murder..."

DUEL/JEWEL IS THE BEST THEY EVER DID

i reckon all the good stuff is on the compilation, outside world from a few years back that came with a dvd of the bands videos.
a great cd. so i'm not so sure there is enough left over to make a 3cd set a la Act, after all, this is ZTT and if they could milk it some more, i'm sure they would .. basically, get the album proper, and the 12" versions compilation, and you're sorted.

(or is their knowledge within the ILM gathering of there being a chunk of unreleased propaganda ?)

The CD of A Secret Wish I have comes with a DVD featuring the studio videos.

propaganda is still working today.. he has a label (amontillado music) and releases new propaganda tracks.. also he (michael martins) is working with mc1 (beppe & francesco) on some stuff..

Michael Mertens may still be making music, but Propaganda is a band, not one man.

how do WISHFUL THINKING and OUTSIDE WORLD compare?

Where are Curtis & Trayce when I need them?

I've actually never heard this band! I was born 2-3 years after their debut so I have some catching up to do.

fANTATSTIC MAN i LOVE YOU, NOW PLEASE TELL TRAYCE, cHEERS.

lol

well ok then..
http://www.juno.co.uk/ppps/products/204996-01.htm
and there is another coming soon..

Speculator! Propaganda is not one man! Not ein mensch! He is a band! They are a MAN!

Ohmigod they are SO GREAT! Why didn't anyone tell me they aren't ONE MAN! I can die now.

Huh, I must've missed _Outside World_ entirely. I'll have to grab that, ta.

The P-Machinery video is especially amazing.

i am confused... i guess i missed something..
i have a little tidbit about p machinery.. the main hook was left over from some other band that had used the studio before them, i forgot which.. but they just beefed up the horn line a little.. and yeah.. p machinery

Yeah I wanted to be clear that I meant the SECOND P-Machinery link upthread, not the first.

That Tube gig (all 3 parts) is the best thing I've ever seen on You Tube. I'm so glad I live in a society technologically advanced enough to put this up where everyone can see it. You Tube is a miracle.

The choreography on that p-Machinery Tube video is simply fantastic!

Perverse clip for "P.Machinery":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q8G5AQpuxM
I like the bit where Ms Brucken unveils the stuffed snake on the table & she looks v. alarming & v. hott at the same time.

OMGWTF was that clip?! Wild.

I have not yet shared with ILX just how completely flipped out obsessed I have been with Propaganda these last few days, especially live versions of stuff like "Frozen Faces", which wasn't even on the original LP for god's sake. Also here is a gig of them from 1985.

Suzanne Freytag is just staggeringly gorgeous. Mr. Odd said he felt A Secret Wish was kindof played out, and I would have agreed entirely until I saw/heard them live and I seem to have fallen in love with them and the songs on that album all over again.

One caveat: I think their cover of Femme Fatale is a total failure.

Moritz von Oswald, one of Basic Channel also known as Maurizio was the engineer or something like that on that record

wtf - had no idea

if anyone has a link to a different file format of that concert in bimble's post IE something I can watch w/o using stupid fucking useless divx player, I'd be v v grateful. I'm sure it's great. It won't play back in sync and it sucks down 75-95% of my processor, WTF.

Oh, sorry, that's 75-95% AT IDLE. When it's playing a file, it's using 97-100%. Fuck's sake, when did media/computer technology start to suck so badly. Why does any media player need to connect to the internet anyway? Fuck one computer in the web 2.0 era grrr etc.

Eh, got it playing in WMP. It's great! Uninstalled all that other crap.

wtf why didn't I know one of the Baisc Channel guys was Maurizio

Well, I said _A Secret Wish_ was played out *for me* because I listened to it so much back in the day. You know, when you're just getting into music and you've got 50 albums you REALLY get to know those albums, and Propaganda's was one of them. But I still enjoy them now and again.

I really want an MP3 of that Throbbing Gristle cover. I may just rip the audio off that Youtube clip, so damn good.

Damnit, Mr. Odd, how did you know I was just thinking that LAST NIGHT? Surely it has already been demonstrated lately that there are enough musical coincidences between us without this? I would guess you are probably about as close to my musical twin as anyone will ever be. I still don't understand how we were thinking of the same songs by the Motels at the same time, either. I honestly give very little thought to the Motels.

So, I had been haunted for nearly 25 years by a melodic fragment that I heard as a kid. I'm sure that most musical obsessives over the age of thirty have had the experience: you turned on the radio and heard the last chorus of an awesome song, but the DJ didn't say what it was called or who it was by. And then you never heard it played again. Nowadays, you can type a couple of words of the lyric into Google and find your answer, but in 1985 I was SOL.
Anyway, while investigating the works of the Trevor Horn/Stephen Lipson axis recently, I discovered that the song in question was Propaganda's Duel. I have been listening to the "Bitter Sweet" extended mix almost daily ever since, and I cannot believe they only made it to number 21 in the British charts. This is surely one of the greatest pop songs of the entire decade.
As the OP astutely observes, the production is very much of its era, but enough time has passed for it to have transcended the vagaries of fashion. Like She Loves You, it just sounds the way it sounds, which is to say marvellous.

I have to say I dig the video too. (Thanks YouTube!) It's the kind of enjoyably extravagant fantasy that was typical of the medium in its (relatively) early days. The money shot, of course, is the glimpse of Susanne Freytag smirking in Night Porter leather fetish gear. Hot damn!

Duel is probably my favourite pop song of the 80s

you must hear P-Machinery too

Murder Of Love.

I ask you ILX, what's not to LOVE?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWoUZwr6aWE&feature=player_embedded

Nine years since my original post on this thread hasn't dulled my love for A Secret Wish. DAN, have you listened to this yet?!!

I remember reading the pretentious quotes on the sleevenotes and wondering wtf that was all about? Added to the sense of mystery though. One of my most treasured albums still.

this fuckin band man <3 forever

Dream Within A Dream is such a weird song for a 'new pop' group to open their debut album with. what the hell does it sound like? it's like some 70s rock band jam. and then blaaaow into The Murder Of Love

it basically sounds like late-era roxy music huh

news just in :

PROPAGANDA:
A SECRET WISH (DELUXE EDITION)

out 02/08/10 on ZTT via Union Square Music (double CD box set, SALVOMDCD14)

"The children of Fritz Lang and Giorgio Moroder...
The Duel in ZTT's crown." - NME
"Propaganda as the perfect post punk pop group?
Very, very easily." - Melody Maker
"Bold, striking, exciting and totally enjoyable." - Smash Hits
Salvo - Union Square Music's collector's label - announces the definitive, deluxe edition of one of the 80s most inspiring albums, Propaganda's A Secret Wish, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Featuring the hit singles Duel, Dr. Mabuse and p:Machinery and produced by Trevor Horn (Art of Noise, Robbie Williams) and Steve Lipson (Pet Shop Boys, Will Young), this is the album that inspired a generation of synthpop, dance and electronica.

This deluxe edition includes the original album plus all of the cassette/vinyl-only mixes on Disc One, complete with guest appearances from David Sylvian, Steve Howe (Yes) and Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17). Disc Two adds a wealth of bonus material including the complete, unexpurgated 20-minute cassette mix of Duel, Trevor Horn's previously unreleased Thousand Eyes... remix of Dr. Mabuse, a works-in-progress version of The Chase and ten-minute 12" mixes of Frozen Faces and p:Machinery.

There's also a previously unreleased 12" remix of Sorry For Laughing (a cover of the Joseph K song) by journalist and broadcaster - and then Propaganda's A&R - Paul Morley. The beautifully restored sleeve has grown into a deluxe digipack featuring rare early photos by Anton Corbijn (U2, Control) and new interviews with the band members.

Cited as a major inspiration by Depeche Mode's Martin Gore, Propaganda's A Secret Wish continues to send ripples through pop music. Some might know Dr. Mabuse as the first ever video by Anton Corbijn. Others the classic film soundtracks like Luc Besson's Subway (Murder of Love) and John Hughes' Some Kind of Wonderful (Dr. Mabuse). Pop fans might know Duel from the recent cover by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, or as the basis of the Dolly Rockers' 2009 single How Did I End Up With U.

those 20 minute cassette mega mixes were brilliant.
cant wait for this.

oh hell yes

Pop fans might know Duel from the recent cover by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, or as the basis of the Dolly Rockers' 2009 single How Did I End Up With U.

Dear oh dear.

This sounds great though! I will buy it for sure, I can't wait.

Awwwwwww yeahhhhhhh

Propaganda's A Secret Wish, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year

That has totally freaked me out. Is it really a quarter of a century since I saw them at the Hammersmith Palais? OMG.

lucky you tho

It was the first concert I had ever been to in London and as a boy from the provinces I was a bit overwhelmed by the big city. On the other hand I remember being rather unimpressed by the gig. I had played A Secret Wish and the "Dr Mabuse" 12" to death and was hugely impressed by the widescreen production on those records, which of course they couldn't reproduce onstage. I remember thinking that their onstage sound was a bit lacklustre. They also suffered from a lack of material. They must have played the whole LP plus "Frozen Faces" and "Sorry for Laughing" but they had to encore by playing "Dr Mabuse" for a second time – the only time I've ever heard a band play a song twice at a gig.

Andreas Thein had left by that time of course and I'm pretty sure Ralf Dorper wasn't part of the live band either. So it was just Mertens, the two women and a bunch of session musicians, leaving me feeling a bit short-changed lineup-wise as well.

Couldn't stunt my love for the album though which as Sean says upthread is still a killer. Will definitely be picking up this reissue. That press release above doesn't make it clear whether the remixes included are those on Wishful Thinking, which wasn't a bad album either.

btw what's the deal with 'Valley Of The Machine Gods'? a totally new single from a few years back apparently? it's really nice (and decent remixes) but total lounge/ambient biz.

I hope they put their version of "Disziplin" on it!

I have some live boots from c. 1985 and they sounded fantastic even w/ session dudes.

Disc 1
* 1. Dream Within A Dream
* 2. Murder Of Love, The
* 3. Jewel
* 4. Duel
* 5. Frozen Faces
* 6. P:Machinery
* 7. Sorry For Laughing
* 8. Chase, The
* 9. Dr. Mabuse
* 10. Dream Within A Dream [analogue variation]
* 11. Jewel [analogue variation]
* 12. Duel [analogue variation]
* 13. P:Machinery [analogue variation]
* 14. Dr. Mabuse [first life]
* 15. Last Word (Strength To Dream), The

disc 2

* 1. Do Well [The first cut/Duel/Jewel (cut rough)/Wonder/Bejewelled]
* 2. Testament One
* 3. Die Tausend Augen Des Mabuse
* 4. Sorry For Laughing [unapolagetic 12" version]
* 5. Thought [part one]
* 6. Thought [part two]
* 7. P:Machinery [Goodnight 32 mix]
* 8. Chase, The [Goodnight mix]
* 9. Echo Of Frozen Faces
* 10. P:Machinery [p:Polish]
* 11. Testament Three

Shame the 'Wishful Thinking' album isn't also on it, just to have it all in one place; 'Loved' off that compilation is amazing. But then they couldn't put it all on there i suppose. There's a very interesting piece by Ian Peel the guy behind this, and the other recent ZTT reissues right here: http://twitpic.com/1h8fux
Check out what the second Frankie.. single was meant to be, before they gave it someone else.

all these years, and i didn't know re the 2 variations of the cd release of this album.

i had the vinyl and so, until a few years ago didn't bother re cd.

now i find out that they revised the album massively for the original cd release in '85 with extended and revised versions of all but 3 of the tracks!

of course, the normal cd edition that i picked up years later had reverted back to the 'standard' album, meaning today was the first time i heard its massively improved cousin.

and to answer the question earlier, thought (pt.1 and pt.2) are from wishful thinking, which is a little unnecessary as surely the best option would be to re-release the whole thing seperately ?

anyway, its weird hearing the 20 minute cassette version of duel/jewel again after all this time.

i cant deny, i would have preferred the 20 minute version of Dr. Mabuse, but it could be that it wasn't that much different from the standard 12" versions. (can't recall which versions were on the cassette etc etc)

Quit paying attention for a few years and you're liable to lose out on two or three deluxe expanded original anniversary half-speed master remastered first time floating inside a special cumulonimbus cloudpak reissues containing the original US CD or nondefinitive UK LP tracklist with and/or without select bonus tracks.

― Andy, Wednesday, November 28, 2001 8:00 PM (seventeen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Christ!

Yeah, the anniversary editions of the debut and the companion remix LP add a ton of great stuff.