Kulturfabrik, Krefeld, Germany
27th April 2007
Onetwo, Technoir
One half of ONETWO is Paul Humphreys who’s member of famous Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) hitting the charts with their imaginative ideas about smart, hard synthesizer pop and cunning, artful image. The other half is Claudia Brücken of the Glam-Goth-Electro band PROPAGANDA. Later, Claudia produced a solo album as well. ONETWO now combines the best quality of both bands: the epic Teutonic intensions of PROPAGANDA and the charged, atmospheric power of OMD. Both people came together in 2004 for form ONEWTO and they released the EP ‘Item’ on their own label. Recently, the band released the debut album ‘Instead’ which is a little diamond in today’s Pop culture. ONETWO are Claudia Brücken (PROPAGANDA) and Paul Humphreys (OMD).
Music
For the live appearance, the duo is expanded by a keyboard player and a Keyboard/guitar player to a quartet. Only real drums were missing for the full band feeling. As you could have expected and as I knew before, the band was playing not only its own songs but also songs of OMD and PROPAGANDA what especially pleased the attending fans of both bands. But first let’s stick to the ONETWO album ‘Instead’. This album has the know-how to become something great. It is a charming mixture of Trance, 80s Electro Pop — all presented with current technical possibilities. ‘Instead’ is an album to discover; odds and ends and subliminal sounds dominate the big picture.
A big bunch of the one album and one EP yet released have been played starting with The Theory of Everything (parts 1 & 2). Further titles from the album which followed were ‘Signals’ and the relaxed ‘Sequential’ with its opulent James-Bond-ish intro. The only German song ‘Kein Anschluss’ with its obvious parallels to KRAFTWERK and ‘Element of Truth’ from the ‘Item’ EP followed. ‘Have a Cigar’ —
But as mentioned before, ONETWO did not only play their own songs. There were several songs being played from their other/former bands PROPAGANDA and OMD.
Performance
Claudia and Paul are some institutions in the Pop scene and quite a while in the business. But hell, they still have so much fun being on stage! They entertained about 200 visitors really well… in fact those people had quite some share in the success of the whole evening. When Claudia in her stylish costume and fancy red shoes and Paul in a black coat entered the stage, they were welcomed by loud cheers. Claudia’s shoes seemed to gain lots of attention… several people were shouting over and over again: “I love your shoes” until Paul some when commented that he’d like to have such shoes too.
Claudia had some admirers in the audience who during the whole show screamed her name what she answered with lots of smiles. At the end of the show, those admirers were rewarded with hand shakes and autographs. Even though it was quite hot in the venue — sometime Paul asked for towels because he was totally soaked — people were dancing and moving all the show. The mood reached always its heights when OMD and PROPAGANDA songs were played but also the new ONETWO songs were welcomed with lots of applause. It was a great evening and I hope the band comes back soon for more shows. It is worth watching it!
Setlist
01. The Theory of Everything (parts 1 & 2)
02. Signals
03. Sequential
04. Messages
05. Dr. Mabuse
06. Kein Anschluss
07. Element of Truth
08. Forever (Live & Die)
09. P-Machinery
10. Have a Cigar (Pink Floyd cover)
11. Home (Tonight)
12. Club Country (ASSOCIATES cover by Claudia Brücken)
13. Souvenir
14. Cloud Nine
15. Snobbery and Decay
16. Duel
— -
17. If you leave
18. A vision in the Sky
— -
19. Electricity
Rating
Music 10
Performance 10
Light 8
Sound 8
Total 9.4