Propaganda A Secret Wish CD

Propaganda was formed in 1982 by keyboardist Ralf Dorper, programmer Andreas Thein and vocalist Susanne Freytag. Soon afterwards they were joined by Claudia Brucken also on vocals and classically-trained percussionist Michael Mertens. They were a band of soaring contrasts. One of their vocalists by her own admission was not a singer; the other had one of the most charismatic voices of the era. They looked to the past for much of their inspiration, yet at the same time their music, which was focused predominantly around keyboards and percussion, even now a quarter of a century on continues to sound industrially futuristic. They were eclipsed in sales and certainly hype by the runaway success of label mates Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but they also produced one of the outstanding pop records of the decade with their 1985 debut album, ‘A Secret Wish’.

The group, even before Brucken and Mertens joined the band, attracted the interest of Paul Morley, who had recently left his job as a music journalist at the ‘NME’ to become the “Minister of Information” and publicity officer at ZTT, the new label which he had formed with producer Trevor Horn and Horn’s manager wife Jill Sinclair. Propaganda became in early 1983 the second act after Frankie Goes to Hollywood to sign to ZTT. With the Frankie phenomenon beginning to take shape after their debut single ‘Relax’ was famously banned by Radio 1 and subsequently went to no. 1 in the singles chart, Propaganda’s debut single, ‘Dr Mabuse’, did not see release until February 1984. ‘Dr Mabuse’ was the only one of their records to be produced by Horn, who had been one of the main reasons why Propaganda had initially signed to ZTT, and who had spent much of the interim before the release of ‘Dr Mabuse’, as well as producing Frankie, co-writing and playing keyboards with another ZTT signing the Art of Noise.

It would be over a year before Propaganda’s second single, ‘Duel’, came out in April 1985. ‘A Secret Wish’ followed in a vinyl and tape version in June, and then three months later in a CD version, which contained an extra song ‘Frozen Faces’ and different mixes of some of the tracks.

Now, a very special Art Of The Album deluxe edition of this seminal record will be released on 26th January 2018. Featuring new sleevenotes within both the CD & 180g LP formats recalling the story of the band’s conception and the album’s creation. Comprehensively researched and written by renowned ZTT archivist and journalist Ian peel, these new sleevenotes cover in-depth the story of the album & the period in which it was written & recorded, the key players in its creation, the craft and instrumentation, the impact upon release and its legacy some 34 years later. The booklet is accompanied by memorabilia from Ian’s personal archive. Both the CD and LP version have also been remastered from the original tapes at Sarm Studio where it was first recorded.