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Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret - 29-Nov-08 09:25 AM
Without a doubt and with no need for hyperbole, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is one of the greatest albums ever recorded in any era on any planet. Marc Almond is at the top of his craft here, guiding the listener through the seamier parts of town and the darkest corners of the human psyche as David Balls understated and hypnotic synth melodies drone on. Trace? Thats a laugh!

Humor, tragedy, pathos, angst, irony, silvery... its all here with even a few genuine hits thrown into the mix, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret delivers the goods and more. The lyrics are smart, funny and unforgettable and Almond embues them with palpable and genuine emotion. The performance and themes taken as a whole leaves one with the impression that Marc Almond circa 1982 was a total nutter, one psychotic break shy of permanent residency in the madhouse. And I mean that in a good way!

This recording is as fresh and engaging as it was nearly 30 years ago. The only thing that could possibly have made it aany better would have been the inclusion of Persuasion (an unsettling descent into madness) and Fun City (its not). This has been addressed in the 2008 Deluxe Edition.

Even the most jaded cynic or misguided 80s hater would be defenseless when confronted by the irresistable hooks comprising Sex Dwarf. ("Sex Dwarf, isnt it nice? Luring disco dollies to a life of vice.") The video version apparently violated decency standards worldwide and it was disappeared down the memory hole. A pity, really.

Onetwo - Onetwo, Remixed - 29-Jul-08 02:40 AM
If you only bought one single in 2007 and this wasnt it, you messed up.

Blank and Jones do surprisingly understated remix and production job on the already club-friendly, bass laden beat stomper that Kein Anschluß was to begin with. Its good to know that Piet and Jaspa, as I prefer to call them, are secure enough in themselves that they dont feel the need to crank the levels and twiddle the effects knobs in an exaggerated masturbatory fashion just to make sure people dont miss the fact that,

"ahem, This Is a Remix And I Am a Production Wizard and I Will Beat You To Death with My Attempts To Impress You with my 1337 Skilz." Imagine thats in all caps, bold, italic and flashing different colors. Thats a remix jockey.

And far too often its just such a remix jockey, desperate to make a name for himself, who is given license to turn a promising track into utter garbage. (For some reason a name from the past, "Shep Pettibone" comes to mind, I have no idea why.)

Thankfully Piet and Jaspa already have their own names and they settle instead on doing what a good remix producer is supposed to do: not let you know hes there, not bring attention to every added element and effectively blend in what he has added.

Home (Tonight) demonstrates this subtlety even better. In fact its hard to be sure the remix from the album version without paying close attention. Rather than stomping all over the original with "Kewl Effexxorz" and showering the listener with bleeps and clicks and whooshy noises, the remix team has done what theyre supposed to do: get out of the way and fade into the background.

Summary: Two great tracks, slightly and subtlely extended so they last a few more minutes, with no obvious "guitar heroing" on the part of the production teams, no "Hey Lookit Me, Im Remixxxin" gimics.

If you dont have this single, especially after hearing a few minutes of it, theres probably something wrong with you. Be sure to consult a physician.

Onetwo - Instead - 28-Jul-08 11:44 PM
This is truly *the* defining release for Onetwo and hopefully a taste of whats to come as they continue to perform ever more feats of magic in the studio. The fact that they secured Bob Krushaar from the beginning shows they know what theyre doing. Thats a smart move there. Dont let him get away!

One might find it a bit ironic that "little Bobby Krushaar" (I think thats how Trevor Horn once referred to him) is all over this release when some 20 years ago his 40 hours of post production work that resulted in Wishful Thinking, in many ways a masterful job of editing, mixing, bending, warping, rearranging and creative abuse of Propagandas recorded material, caused a certain amount of friction between Propaganda and Trevor Horns rather unconventional and overbearing label ZTT. Well, that and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, now largely forgotten, was all the rage at the time and ZTTs ticket to ride. FGTH was made the top priority and milking that cash cow job number one. ZTT, the incredible hype machine built by Horn, was finally making a name for itself.

So would anyone care about these odd and confused visitors from Dusseldorf? They were already bound by a contract anyway so they werent going anywere. And things only got worse. Its really not to surprising that Propaganda flew apart at the seams.

But thats not really Bobs fault though. And Ive seen his name from time to time on slick productions like this one (an Ofra Haza remix single also comes to mind). It was probably a combination of Trevor Horns uncompromising production style (remake everything an artist does without letting them in on it) and Propagandas inexperience mixed with culture shock caused by arriving at ZTT of all places. Had it not been for ZTT, Propaganda might have survived.

Its good to see that Bobby is still in the music business and that he had a hand in yet another unforgettable production. I should have known he was involved. Ive gotten this exact same "wow" vibe before and lo and behold, its Krushaar again.

If you dont get ahold of this recording and youre a fan of either Humphries or Brucken, you must be a complete idiot or a gibbering simpleton. This is where it all came together and the strange logic of this unlikely partnership came sharply into focus.

Onetwo has arrived. Be There. Or else.

Onetwo - 28-Jul-08 10:38 PM
Rarely has a follow up been so necessary. And I do realize it may seem tedious for me come back to answer my own question. So be it.

But yes, it turns out that One and Two do indeed make three. With the release of the album Instead and the startlingly potent single, Onetwo, Remixed, containing breathlessly hypnotic remixes of Kein Anschluß and Home (Tonight), Claudia and Paul have removed all doubt from my mind that there is untapped reserves of synergy in their unlikely partnership, one that I hope continues to move from here to There and ever forward.

Home (Tonight), for example, is an unforgettable combination of infectious modern beats, overlaid by haunting melody lines, tightly and cleverly arranged, impressively driven home by Claudias pitch perfect vocalization, delivering both bittersweet regret as well as determined resolve in a performance that simply reaches out from the recording media and unforgivingly stabs at the listeners heart. And thats just one track!

Brucken delivers some of the best of her craft here and sounds like shes having a good time with it. Im not sure what Pauls up to in here, but it certainly makes one wonder what he was doing all that time in OMD, as Onetwo simply blows it all away. History. OMD revisited? Heh. Why bother!

Remixed is a great choice for a distillation of some of what makes Instead such a strong release. It marks a point in time in which the talented duo have really hit their stride. All that and a surprising cover of Pink Floyds Have a Cigar thrown into the mix. What more could one want?

Instead also includes new recordings of two of my favourite tracks from the tragically abandoned and never released Propaganda demo, recorded before One and Two parlayed the OMD Revisited tour into Onetwo, a new beginning. Do yourself a favor and get both the album and the single, one and two. And if you can track down the Propaganda recording of Anonymous, its more than well worth it. Theres something about the emotion in the original recording that just clicks.

Where does Onetwo go from here? I dont really know, but Id sure like to go along for the ride. Fans of Claudia Brucken will be very pleased. And admirers of Mr. Paul Humphries will find themselves speechless.

Thanks to the person who sent me an email about my original review. It reminded me to come back. Did I mention Kein Anschluß? Oh my God. Onetwo have arrived.

Onetwo - 29-Dec-06 12:09 PM
OneTwo, for one reason or another hasnt yet bothered to count to three. I liked their debut "Item," sandwiched though it was by two versions of Pauls song to his real or imagined sister. Another of the five tracks, "Cloud Nine," the one made with the assistance of Depeche Modes Martin L. Gore, is a leftover from the much stronger, but never released 2001 untitled Propaganda album, available only as a downloadable bootleg. The other two tracks feature fine performances by the consistently gifted Claudia Brucken. But its somehow not enough. I mean, what have they done for me lately? ;-)

I like Paul Humphreys enough, and I had kept up OMD since the early eighties. I appreciate that I was able to meet and hear Claudia perform in Seattle, something Id never expected to happen, due to his "OMD Revisited" tour (in 1999 or 2000 I think). It was basically 1/2 of the core OMD duo along with some friends covering the OMD backcatalogue, including a special guest vocalist from Duesseldorf. It was a brief tour in the smallest of venues. If not for the Propaganda vocalist tagging along, Id never have noticed.

That was around the time I heard the rumour about 3/4 of Propaganda finally getting back into the studio after 15 long years, to continue what they had started back in Germany and had ended so abruptly in the UK due to producer (Trevor Horn), label (ZTT) and legal (contractural) conflicts. Somehow the planets had aligned just right. This time it was going to work great! But then it all went horribly wrong.

The project was scrapped and the resulting demo album (9 very good tracks, at least 2 of which, "Ignorance" and "Anonymous" are excellent diamonds in the rough). I am so very thankful that someone had the foresight to grab a copy of the unfinished album and leak it on the Internet. It nears Propagandas ZTT debut and obviously surpasses the 2nd release that featured a different vocalist and a couple of blokes from Simple Minds. To suggest that was Propaganda, was itself propaganda.

I know Im droning on and on, but inbetween Propaganda I (1985) and the supressed gem of Propaganda III (2001), Claudia has quietly made some great recordings, including "Ill Find a Way" with The Brain, and on her own with "Fanatic" and "Absolut[e]," among a handful of collaborations with other artists which have never been that well known. But they are worth seeking out. Especially worthwhile is Razormaids Claudia Brucken compilation, "Incarnations." Best item Ive ever bought from Joseph Watt.

I had such high hopes back during Paul Humphreys low profile "OMD Revisited" tour with Claudia Brucken as a special guest. She performed a track off 1985s "A Secret Wish" as well as OMDs "Women III" among other. It was at this show that they both announced their plans to work together on the project that would eventually come to be called OneTwo.

Whatever happened to that?

I think I shall never forgive Trevor Horn, ZTT and Frankie Goes To Hollywood for destroying Propaganda back in 1985 and for setting Claudia Brucken adrift shortly thereafter. Just listening to the rough unreleased Propaganda demo album from 2001, after more than a year of anticipation, I cant help but think of what might have been.

I was just glad that I got to thank Claudia in person and tell her how much I had enjoyed Propaganda and everything I could find her in since.

I just hope that somehow, for OneTwo, three will be a charm. But I wont be holding my breath. Not for another fifteen years, anyway!

[ [ This has been an R23 rant.... ] ]

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