The year 1986 started positively—the single "p:Machinery" gained the number 1 chart position in Spain (for one week)—but ended in disaster. Propaganda is credited for remixing Holly Johnson's single "Dancing with No Fear" (released 2015), on which Michael Mertens and Ralf Dörper also played a synthesizer. Produce Like A Pro (13 June 2022). "Modern Mixing for Timeless Production | Stephen Lipson Talks xPropaganda". YouTube . Retrieved 4 November 2023. The third and final single, p:Machinery, expanded the short mix from the album into another 9-minute epic whose vision of a population enslaved to industrial technology easily invokes Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, so much so that I used to play the single while running taped scenes from the film on TV. The enormous “Polish” mix of this song has always been scarce on CD, with a Japanese release in 1988, and a later reissue (with some shoddy and superfluous remixes) in 1995. Another benefit of the new edition of the album is that the extended mix provides the climax of the second disc and sounds even more enormous, its brass fanfares accurately described in a review at the time as conjuring images of cities rising from the sea. We’ve already had the 20th (CD, DVD plus SACD) and 25th (Element Series Edition) anniversary reissues of Propaganda’s A Secret Wish, now here’s a brand new version, just in time for its 33rd birthday…

Sinclair, Paul (15 February 2022). "xPropaganda / The Heart Is Strange. New album available on SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio". SuperDeluxeEdition . Retrieved 4 November 2023. Featuring [Participation With Some Voice And Instruments] – Allen L. Kirkendale*, A. Thein*, Andrew Richards*, David Sylvian, Glenn Gregory, Ian Mosely*, Jonathan Sorrell, S. J. Lipson*, Steve Howe, Stuart Coppland*, Trevor HornIt was an epic goodbye: A Secret Wish was a triumph of pomp and bombast, producer Stephen Lipson – Trevor Horn’s keenest protege at Sarm Studios – using his Synclavier digital synthesiser and sampling system to full, overwhelming effect. If you want a definitive example of 80s techno wizardry used in the services of great songwriting, look no further. I wish (a secret wish perhaps?) that people were able to hear Propaganda's original demos which were like hearing Propaganda as done by The Fall or someone. The bore no resemblance at all to what became their first album. Working for Sarm in 1983 was my first job in a UK recording studio (Sarm West studio 2). I wish I would have had an idea how big they'd become, and that I could listen to those demos now. Even though demos can and do frequently change shape on the journey to their finished form, the early demos (I believe that they were Ralf Dörper's early experimental recordings from Dusseldorf) sounded so different as to be unrecognisable.

previously unreleased on CD. Originally released as cassette 'singlette' Do Well CTIS 108 (May 1985). Identical to A Secret Wish, except this version has in matrix "NIMBUS ENGLAND", not "MASTERED BY NIMBUS". The Murder Of Love" (5:14) is actually the 'Analogue Variation', with the intro part 5 seconds longer than on the CD version.Abrahams, Ian (October 2010). " A Secret Wish | Propaganda". Record Collector. No.380 . Retrieved 27 March 2022. A Secret Wish has been reissued a number of times– including as a deluxe 20th anniversary edition and as a multi-channel SACD. The most recent re-release is the 2010 double CD deluxe edition which marks the album's 25th anniversary. I didn’t gain any new perspective about Propaganda’s music from this MC mix, but on the other hand I am again and again reassured what a great band they were, or should I said what a great job Trevor Horn did with them. This issue also benefits from a very informative essay about the group, if you are new to Propaganda you’ll learn all you need to know. This used to be my most played non-classical CD, and it still has a very special place now on our SACD shelf. Also present for the first time on the new CD is Do Well, the 20-minute Duel suite which was a cassette-only release, plus a number of other previously unavailable mixes. If you have this double-disc set and the Outside World single collection from 2002 then you’ll own pretty much everything that’s great about Propaganda. A lot of pop music from the 1980s sounds horribly dated now: tinny synths, empty production and a paucity of ambition. Propaganda sound as thunderingly magnificent as they did in 1985, and still unique. It’s a shame that A Secret Wish was their finest moment, things fell apart fairly soon after. But one masterpiece will always be worth fifty Duran Duran travesties.

to 1-9 originally released as CD version of A Secret Wish (September 1985). Some of these versions differ from the original vinyl/cassette edition.

Release Details

I never liked some songs: Sorry for laughing is terrible, The chase is nice but just a filler. Some versions has the Femme fatale which I think is a terribly childish composition musicalwise and doesn't match to the mastery of the symphonic value of the strenght of the album. Like previous ‘art of the album’ reissues (such as Frankie‘s Welcome To The Pleasuredome) these don’t offer any bonus audio, but what they do offer (apart from the new remastering, which was undertaken by Joel Peters) is new presentation and fresh notes. Ian Peel (who has curated all of the ZTT reissues in the last five or six years) has written new sleeve notes which tell the story of the players, the craft, the impact and the legacy of the album through interviews with band members and producer Stephen Lipson. A few years later the band also appeared exclusively on a German TV show celebrating the best songs of the 1980s. Propaganda may have come from Düsseldorf, Germany’s Beat Central, home of Kraftwerk and Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF), but they sure knew how to create a catchy tune. RIP, Andreas Thein (May 30, 2013) Co-Founder Of German Synth Pop Group, Propaganda". The Music's Over. 30 May 2013 . Retrieved 29 April 2014.

The intertextual reference on this and subsequent releases isn’t surprising given the people involved. Paul Morley took a great delight in embellishing the ZTT releases with quotations—the Frankie album was probably the first chart-topping release with a recommended reading list—while band member Ralph Dörper had been with the Neue Deutsche Welle group Die Krupps prior to Propaganda, and it was his influence which gave them the abrasive industrial edge that I found so attractive. While between groups he released an experimental EP in 1983 under his own name featuring versions of In Heaven from Eraserhead and John Carpenter’s theme from Assault on Precinct 13, and it was Dörper who chose Throbbing Gristle’s Discipline as the demo song which the group used to catch the attention of ZTT. That particular cover version never made it to A Secret Wish although they did perform it live on The Tube, and a later version appeared on the remix album, Wishful Thinking. This recording is happily included on the second disc of the new reissue. The drummachine is bloody rudimentary. Boaaah... It was always the weakest point of the ZTT but on the FGTH albums it was still excuseable.In May 1985, with Frankie Goes to Hollywood becoming tax exiles in Ireland, the band effectively headlined "The Value of Entertainment", a series of showcase gigs of ZTT signings, held at the Ambassadors Theatre in London. The shows also featured Art of Noise, Anne Pigalle, Andrew Poppy and Instinct. Propaganda were joined on stage by former Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes and ex- Japan drummer Steve Jansen. [4] 1985: A Secret Wish [ edit ]