Felix NEill

Jesus, this is sounding great.

Adapted from a Wikipedia article:

Propaganda were a Düsseldorf band, formed in 1982 by Ralf Dörper (a member of the German industrial band Die Krupps), part-time DJ Andreas Thein and singer Susanne Freytag. Shortly therefter they were joined by the classically trained musician and composer Michael Mertens and 19-year old vocalist Claudia Brücken. Paul Morley and Trevor Horn's newly-formed ZTT Records label signed them in 1994. The group relocated to the United Kingdom and released the single "Dr. Mabuse", named after the fictional character made famous by film maker Fritz Lang. The group appeared on various TV shows in the UK, including Channel 4's "The Tube", where as well as performing "Dr. Mabuse", they also gave one of their few performances of a cover version of Throbbing Gristle's song "Discipline". The band had included the song in their original demo and it was intended to be their first single, but Throbbing Gristle apparently objected.

The original band didn't last that long, which confirms my belief that ZTT were fucking horrible to work for. Apparently they had a TERRIBLE contract which meant that they would never make any money. Trevor Horn was busy with Frankie Goes To Hollywood, which meant that production duties for this record were handled by his chief engineer, Stephen Lipson.

I think he did a great job. This album hasn't really dated that much, although the Frankie stuff definitely has. There's also some fantastic tracks on here: "Duel", "P-Machinery" and "Dr. Mabuse" - not to mention the brilliant cover of Josef K's "Sorry For Laughing" (I wonder whose idea that was - the bands or Morley's?). Very clever choice of cover, as if there ever was a song which could benefit from a shiny pop makeover to polish the genius original, it was that one.

Ripped from the original vinyl, this is sounding amazing to me. There was also an accompanying remix record - "Wishful Thinking", which Horn had a hand in, which does sound very 80's, although still sounds undeniably great.

Ripped from the original 1985 vinyl at 320 Kbps.

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