XPROPAGANDA / D:UEL
COLUMBIA THEATER, BERLIN
6 SEPTEMBER★★★★
ONE-HALF OF PROPAGANDA RETEAM IN THEIR HOMELAND FOR AN
INTOXICATING EVENING OF DARK, ABRASIVE SYNTH CLASSICS
beats and vocals whose threat,
“Don’t be a fool”, is as beguiling
as Lauren Bacall.
Throughout, Brücken is quietly
mesmerising, whether banging a
snare drum to a brilliantly
deranged Jewel or swaying on
murderous stilettoes, while
Freytag is more informal,
gesturing earnestly and shaking
hands with the front row,
frequently unable to hide her
disbelief at the devoted response
their music’s eliciting.
A largely acoustic
interpretation of The Velvet
Underground’s Femme Fatale is
an unexpected encore, but they
provocatively wave whips
through their Throbbing Gristle
cover, Discipline, before
concluding with their biggest hit,
the grandiose Duel.
If it’s a dream within a dream,
it’s nonetheless come true:
Brücken and Freytag have not
only brought their legacy to life,
but honoured it fantastically, too.
Wyndham WallaceA
ll that we see or seem
is but a dream within
a dream,” intones
Claudia Brücken, just
as she did at the start of A Secret
Wish, Propaganda’s crucial
debut album, released by ZTT in- But, as this long-awaited
comeback gets underway, it
looks for a moment like a
nightmare will unfold. This is the
first show Brücken and co-vocalist
Susanne Freytag – half of the
original Düsseldorf act – have
performed in Berlin for many
years, but their guitarist is soon
struggling with his pedal board,
brandishing cables frantically like
a surgeon untangling intestines.
Fortunately, hope has not
“flown away”. Technical
complications aside, the band
are note-perfect: that haunting,
opening synth-trumpet solo,
Freytag’s hypnotic vibraphone,
the pounding, single note
bassline underpinning things
throughout, the monstrous drums
heightening its climax, and, of
course, Brücken’s ice-cold yet
seductively Teutonic delivery. For
those who never expected to see
the song performed – the line-up
that recorded it parted ways
soon afterwards amid disputes
with their label – it’s a truly
goosebump-inducing start.
Clearly, rather than using theintervening years to reinterpret
their music – as some might,
especially when legally obliged
to employ a different name –
Brücken and Freytag have
stayed true to the extravagant,
industrially influenced sound that
nearly convinced mid-80s Britain
there was more to German music
than Nena’s 99 Red Balloons.
This sets the tone for what
follows. Admittedly, they sprinkle
crowd-pleasing disco dust over
Frozen Faces, bringing the
audience to their feet early on,
but The Murder Of Love is as
appealingly disciplined as ever,
and Sorry For Laughing, their
unlikely, bleak Josef K cover,
remains disconcertingly
benumbed. Admittedly The
Chase sounds a little thin amid
such intensity, but P-Machinery’s
sheer “power, motion, force” are
unstoppable, its triumphant
synth-horn lines provoking wild
celebrations, and Dr Mabuse is
even more thrilling, full of deep,
dark, bubbling synth bass, fierceSETLIST
(^1) Dream Within
A Dream
(^2) The Murder Of Love
(^3) Jewel
(^4) Frozen Faces
(^5) P-Machinery
(^6) Sorry For Laughing
(^7) The Chase
(^8) Dr Mabuse
(^9) The Last Word/
Strength To Dream
Encore
(^10) Discipline
(^11) Femme Fatale
(^12) Duel