Propaganda reborn with Michael Mertens and Claudia Brücken © 2001 Gilbert Blecken
Twenty years ago the early web was buzzing with the news that the real Propaganda were back together and recording a new album. We could put the false Propaganda who had made the dull, lifeless “1234” album in 1990 on the burning pyre of history best forgotten. Against all odds, relations were patched up between Michael Mertens, Susanne Freytag, and Claudia Brücken and a new album was underway. The website was at propahanga.de and it featured a tiny web video of a cinematic looking video clip for the song “No Return” as made by one “Keyser Soze,” a 90s reference if ever there were one.
Naturally, I signed up to the mailing list and one day got the email saying that a new version of the great single “Duel” was available for download with the password that was emailed to each person who had signed up. So we downloaded the oh so moderne “Duel [Y2K Mix]” in all of its 128 kbps, MP3 glory. Twenty years later, it remained the only official release of any music from that ill-starred reunion, and today we revisit it for a listen.
Right from the start it was a whole new “Duel.” Dubby loops of Claudia saying “eye to eye” with a fat Eurohouse beat underneath with four-to-the-floor. Hints of acid house on the synths that replaced the synthetic horns of the original. Raveloops recirculated endlessly as Ms. Brücken crooned on top of it all. After 15 years in the business, her vocal was decidedly smoother than the 1st version.
As this was undoubtedly the product of loops in a DAW, the energy here was all neat and tidy and completely quantized. There were subtle filips that stepped outside of the rave-lite environment of the track. The occasional deeptwang guitar sample; sounding like a lift from Badalamenti’s “Twin Peaks” work made a brief appearance a few times. Elsewhere, some of the song’s reliable traits were still evident, like the borderline ludicrous piano glissando still here. After which the beat dropped out to leave the shimmering synths for a couple of bars.
But it always got back to business. returning to a four-on-the-floor, workmanlike chug; with a scant string patch in the fadeout to pull the listener thorough the repetitive stasis the beat engendered. For all the world, this seemed like less the product of Michael Mertens of Propaganda than it seemed to be a late 90s remix of the track, as we understood the term by that point in time. By some modern DJ. It definitely took second place to the creamy perfection of the original but certainly didn’t overstay its welcome at a polite 4:23.
Tellingly, Ralf Dorper was not involved as he was back to working with Die Krupps as he had been following the dissolution of Propaganda, so none of the high drama he brought to the table was to be found here. This was a somewhat perfunctory revisit of an old classic wearing the fashions of the day; perhaps even a few years out of date, with some pride. We’re glad we have this, but it remains a curio from the unreleased third Propaganda era that never even got off the starting blocks, save for this track.
Click here to sample
– 30 –
![Want List: Visage DLX RM […finally!]](https://i0.wp.com/postpunkmonk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/visage-dlxrmuscda.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1)
Post-Punk Monk 
Good god this is *awful* 😳
LikeLike
I wouldn’t normally write hyperbolically, but the originals are so perfect and this is such a blunt and numb interpretation. No piano reverb, nothing whatsoever of the original that made it a beautiful song.
But I’m glad you wrote about Propaganda again, such a fantastic band. Saw them at the Highbury Garage concerts in 2018 (?17)
LikeLike
Graham Brown – Sometimes, one needs to write hyperbolically. I’ve been known to dip into the bucket every now and then. As a big fan of Claudia Brücken, the fact that the third Propaganda album never happened was just one more reason to like her. Her quality control is very high.
LikeLike
She never created the same magic as she did with Michael, Suzanne and Ralf. Yes, her voice is unique but so is the musical genius of Michael and Ralf.
LikeLike
I can only second that emotion Graham! It is a pale, thin dancefloor filler of a remix of one of the great songs of the 80s…no, one of the great songs of all time.
LikeLike
Graham – Oh, I’ve heard far worse! Like I said, it sounded less like Propaganda and more like some DJ “remixing” the cut. It sounded dated for 2000, and perhaps it was the clearest vision of why the album they were recording then was ultimately tabled. I’ve actually heard the leaked album and two of the songs got used for the OneTwo project, though they were the weaker cuts there, in my opinion. I was happy after hearing the leaked album that it had been shevled; a wise decision.
LikeLike
Yeah, sometimes it’s best to just leave memories as they were. Some bands burn brightly and snuff out – you have to cherish them for what they were…
Funnily enough, yesterday I went into the office to pick up all my stuff after 8 months working at home, and waiting for me was this little promo beauty – had forgotten I had ordered it:
https://www.discogs.com/Shriekback-Get-Down-Tonight-Acid-House-Mix/release/1614998
It wasn’t considered to be the band’s best era/moment by any means, but it beats the hell out of this abomination!
Great idea for an occasional series :)
LikeLike
Graham Brown – Wait… you are presumably in the UK. You are going back to the office now, after 8 months? I thought the UK was just entering lockdown again for wave two?
As for “Get Down Tonight,” I had issues with “Go Bang’s” production but I found that cover version rather amusing, though I have not yet spun my 12″ single of it. [looks @Discogs link] Hmmm! An instrumental mix on the promo? [adds disc to endless want list…]
LikeLike
Back to the office to pick up all my stuff! Never going back, moving to another part of the country – more space, lower pace of life…
Also means I can set up a music room and get my vinyl out! Still
Working for the same company, we’ve decided everybody can still work remotely.
Once I get set up I’ll send you a rip of the disc. Love the smiley label!
LikeLike
Graham Brown – Well, that’s more like it! I worked remotely for two glorious months but the owner hated not having us under his thumb, so as soon as my county went out of strict lockdown [I work in the next county] I was called back into the office. The organ grinder likes his monkeys on a short leash! Don’t worry about sending me a rip of the instrumental track. That’s not my style.
LikeLike
Monk, you are awfully kind to this awful remix of one great track!
LikeLike
Echorich – In A World… where there exists the Micronauts remix of OMD’s “Electricity,” this one is not worth breaking a sweat over! I’m made of sterner stuff!
LikeLike
For those interested, I do have the b**tleg 1998 “Untitled Unreleased Album” in 160kb mp3
Artist: Propaganda
Release: Untitled Unreleased Album
Year: 1998
Type: Album
Format: CD
Category: Bootleg
Time: 41:06
Styles: Pop
NRRID: 0010
Tracklisting:
01. Cloud 9 [04:24]
02. Ignorance [04:46]
03. Who’s the Fool [04:14]
04. Beast Within [04:59]
05. No Return [05:16]
06. To the Future [04:45]
07. Turn to the Sun [03:03]
08. Dream Within a Dream [06:05]
09. Anonymous [03:34]
The best description I could give for the thing as a whole is a middling Brücken album – far more glisten-y — and less moto-driven — than any Propaganda (real or fake) fare previously passed under that name. Not that a middling Claudia Brücken album is to be sneezed at, but for anyone EXPECTING proper Propaganda it’s certainly a disappointment.
It’s just 48 megs total, so if anyone wants it I’d be willing to slap it up on 1fichier or similar.
LikeLike
Yeesh – I could only handle about 30 seconds of that.
LikeLike
“We could put the false Propaganda who had made the dull, lifeless “1234” album in 1990 on the burning pyre of history best forgotten.”
NO! What nonsense! As a matter of fact, “1234” IS Propaganda, and it is a great album, one of my favourite albums. Different, but awesome.
No more hate speech against this wonderful album, please.
Michael
LikeLike
Michael – Welcome to the comments! The three areas where “1234” failed for me were firstly, in having Howard Jones co-write material. I’m really not a fan of Mr. Jones. Michael Mertens’ girlfriend Betsi Miller was a colorless singer following the striking Claudia Brücken. The final fail was in getting Simple Minds godlike original rhythm section and it not mattering. Even the Neville Brody artwork was a fail for the normally exceptional Brody. I think there’s maybe a 12″ single worth of material that was recognizable as Propaganda hiding in the album.
LikeLike
Propaganda are reuniting once again, and I am not talking about xPropaganda. A new song titled “Purveyor of Pleasure” featuring a girl by the name of Thunder Bae popped out. This time it’s Mertens and Dörper adopting the name Propaganda… and I am sort of… meh…
While I actually like 1234, although it feels quite unfinished and inconsistent, I really liked Betsi Miller’s voice, which in my opinion was the thing that saved the overall album. xPropaganda was an experience, I really loved The Heart Is Strange.
But this Mertens/Dörper collaboration just feels… as you said… lifeless. Overproduced and processed vocals which sound quite AI and remind me of any vocals on the radio, and a monotonous melody. So now we have Claudia and Suzanne as xPropaganda, who are quite great and Dörper and Mertens using the Propaganda moniker. I don’t want to be negative or anything but with the new song I am neutral at best. I am looking forward for the new Propaganda (3.0? 4.0?) album and I might change my mind. Till then there is the one A Secret Wish Propaganda, and the rest being just some propaganda with the same moniker.
LikeLike
Hishten Hein – Sacre bleu! This was news to me. I am only mildly curious about the new Dörper/Mertens Propaganda as “1234” actually had the classic Simple Minds rhythm section playing on it in addition to Susanne Freytag… and I still didn’t like it! McGee/Forbes WERE Simple Minds to me. [samples track] I see they are signed to Bureau B! Normally I simply buy anything from that label that I can find, but after sampling on Soundcloud it’s simply more of the same from Mertens that I’ve been getting post-Secret Wish. The music was faceless, and I actively disliked the breathy, girly vocals from …Thunder Bae. A whole lot. That post-Millennial girlish phrasing loses me immediately. This was as musically mediocre as the unreleased album with Ms. Brücken. I simply don’t think Mertens has what it takes to catch my ear any more. And I have 34 years of history to back up that thought. The more astonishing thought is how Ralf Dörper can pivot from Die Krupps to this.
LikeLike
I feel the regarding for Mertens and the post-Millennial girlish vocals. The more time passes by, the more I think “A Secret Wish” is just one of a kind album. It has sort of a masculine energy to it, and compared to the later girly output, I just cannot call anything else Propaganda. I am a huge fan of Claudia and I really like all of her released output. I wonder if this new song would have sounded better with Claudia on vocals. Her output is a daily drive for me, aside of ASW, we have the stunning Act with some of the best synthpop tunes, I wonder how I haven’t worn out the CD I own yet, the mesmerizing Love And A Million Of Other Things and the stunning xPropaganda record. One more thing is the lack of any involvement by Andreas Thein (RIP), who was IMO a key figure in the ASW era, together with Dörper they added an industrial underline to the album, which is also notable in pre-ASW tracks like Disziplin, Doppelgänger and Sünde. The production team also matters – Trevor Horn and Steve Lipson did the job perfectly. As for Mertens – he has never been a driving force in Propaganda IMO, his work is rather monotonous and the way he treats Propaganda as his own band bugs me. As mentioned, both 1234 and the unreleased album with Brücken are full of monotonous music lacking the original Propaganda chemistry.
That in mind, if there is a new album, I will listen to it. I remember when The Heart Is Strange came out, the sole song I heard from it was Don’t You Mess With Me, which I sort of didn’t like. However, since it was Claudia, I purchased the CD, and the first time I heard the rest of the album was in my car, when I had the CD in my hands. Needless to say, the first seconds of The Night were enough for me to be happy with my purchase and I started liking Don’t You Mess together with the rest of the tracks. However, I never disliked this track, unlike the current “Propaganda” output. So fingers crossed, but I am not a fan of Mertens at all. He might be friends with Ralf, who did some amazing stuff both solo and with Die Krupps, but I don’t hear Ralf in the post-ASW output, just Mertens’ pretentious classically trained monotony.
LikeLike
Hishten Hein – You hammer the nail on the head! The overriding vibe to ASW was, as you say, its dark, masculine energy. That was a heavy chain of continuity running through that first album period. Their finest moment, “Dr. Mabuse,” literally crackles with it. Another vital factor to the success of that period might be down to one more thing; the taste of Claudia Brücken. She may not have been the progenitor of the group, but her taste in everything she has done, has been unerring. This is why we collect the output her career and love it. I felt that Act was astonishing at the time, and lament that it was the right project at the wrong time; with the UK music scene going off the rails into dance styles [House, Madchester] that didn’t do it for me. The only mediocre Brücken project I have ever heard was the unreleased Propaganda album, which she had the good taste to walk away from! Mertens classicism was a significant part of the ASW cocktail but ZTT were fully in charge. I don’t think he has the taste to be a leader.
LikeLike
She at very least designed the vest that was used as a cover art. And I totally get what you say. The unreleased album is fine if you consider these demo tracks and vague ideas. And the re-recordings of “Anonymous” and “Cloud 9” by the amazing Onetwo really show some potential to these songs, and a bit of the No Return demo has been used in Signals according to my ears. Also she has an amazing taste for collaborators – let alone as a moderate Depeche Mode follower, Cloud 9 has been co-written by no other but Martin Gore. This year she collaborated with The John Williams Syndicate on the tracks “As Long As You’re There For Me” and “So High So Low” as well as with Michael Mörs on “Microwaves”. These tracks are great and she does not disappoint, also her collaborations in the recent years including “Don’t Give Up On Me” and “Luminiscent” again with John Williams and “Birmingham” with Wolfgang Flür among others, don’t disappoint either. Maybe you shall do a Claudia hidden treasures post like you did with Lene Lovich?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hishten Hine – That’s a very good suggestion! There’s a series of posts that I could make on Brücken marginalia. I have made sure to collect it over the years and that’s one area where selective downloads have been necessary and useful. The days of buying a CD for one track have passed for me.
LikeLike
So, now we have a release date of the new Propaganda record and it’s title. The new album is simply called Propaganda and will be released on 11. of October. There are previews on bureau-b dot com slash releases dot php. There is sort of a nostalgic tune and vibe, other than that… I don’t feel it. The preview of a new song Nocebo on Facebook I think featured a robotic voice or maybe a vocoder. Won’t judge it so far but when released I will stream it on YouTube, which I don’t do with the artists I love. But somehow… c’mon… where is Claudia… not even AI can replace Claudia, AI can make it sound like Claudia, but it’s not Claudia… Alright sorry for the last sentence, but that’s how much I like Claudia and wish she was involved, instead of AI sounding girls.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hishten Hein – Oh dear. Went to Soundcloud to sample. Nothing to see here…move along. It sounds like a 35 year later re-tread of “1234” to these ancient ears.
LikeLike
Now you can listen to the new “Propaganda” record on Bandcamp, for free (luckily). I don’t remember any of the songs after the first listen, but I’ll be positive. The new vocalist, the girl, looks great. This might be a good soundtrack for an adult movie. Other than that, I have no intentions to listen to it twice.
LikeLike