Posted February 20, 20232 yr The German group Propaganda were signed to ZTT, the new label owned by Trevor Horn and Paul Morley, in 1983. Their debut album, A Secret Wish, was released in 1985. Trevor Horn was too busy with Frankie Goes To Hollywood at the time of recording so his deputy, Stephen Lipson, produced the album except for the lead single, Dr Mabuse, which came out in 1984. I bought it on cassette in 1985 but the version I am presenting here is the CD which has an extra track, Frozen Faces, and a longer version of Dr Mabuse. Stephen Lipson has said that the CD version, released three months after the vinyl/cassette, is the definitive version as it gave him time to remix it to his satisfaction. The album starts with an excellent nine minute song, Dream Within A Dream, which has a small amount of spoken lyrics but is mainly an instrumental. As well as the synths, there is a prominent trumpet, some conga drums and what sound like real drums. The three singles really stand out. Dr Mabuse - The Last Word is the same long version I sent to the BJSC (where it unexpectedly finished as high as 5th) except for a slightly different ending. The groups best known song, Duel, a number 21 hit, is preceded by an alternative version called Jewel which is much more aggressive with Claudia Brücken virtually shouting the lyrics. I think I prefer Jewel to Duel. P Machinery should have been a third top 40 single but only got to number 50. Of the remaining four tracks, the best one is Sorry For Laughing, a cover of a 1980 song by the Scottish band Josef K. The production all the way through A Secret Wish is outstanding and it's my favourite synth pop album. I'll be interested to hear what others think if they have a listen. Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/album/3gPehgpPd4KsNfxJk1t4BJ
February 20, 20232 yr Good choice! I like this album, albeit I’ve got this on my phone but don’t know now if it’s actually one of my own versions of an album - guess I’ll find out at the listen through haha. Dr Mabuse is my favourite thing on it from what I can recall
February 20, 20232 yr I know and love 'Dr Mabuse', 'Duel' and 'P Machinery' so would definitely be up for checking out the whole album ^_^
February 21, 20232 yr I absolutely bloody adore Dr Mabuse, so exciting. P machinery and Duel are also fab, so I'm assuming wrongly the whole album is Trevor-Horntastic - it's Lipson-tastic.
February 22, 20232 yr Will be here for this tomorrow - I think the only thing I know from them is the version of 'Dr. Mabuse' that you sent to BJSC (and their more recent entry under the name xPropaganda if that counts) but I did really like that so interested to hear more.
February 22, 20232 yr I've missed a few of these across both Retro and 00s but have remembered this one just in time, hype *.*
February 22, 20232 yr Really enjoyed this one, one of the best album picks so far. I can see why 'Duel' was the biggest hit from this but it was actually probably my least favourite song on here, sounded a little bit ordinary compared to everything else - 'p:Machinery' also had a more mainstream sound but was a lot better so I wish that had been a bigger hit instead. 'Sorry For Laughing' was the only other song that didn't really feel like a standout in any way ('The Chase' was going that way too but I really enjoyed the last minute). 1 Dr. Mabuse 2 p:Machinery 3 Dream Within A Dream - loved the new agey vibe to this one 4 Jewel - the much superior wackier version of 'Duel', although I would not have realised they were versions of the same song if you didn't tell me 5 Frozen Faces The first minute or so of 'The Murder Of Love' sounded fantastic as well although it tailed off a bit after that, so kind of the opposite of 'The Chase' for me.
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