ZANG TUMMM TUMB ARTICLES “the first draft of history”

Propaganda — “Secret Wish” (ZTT/Island)

Dave and I take a lot of time and space on this page each week to propagate brain-tickling junk music (the bread and butter of our existence). Once in a while Dave finds the golden Twinkle and I build a sandcastle out of Ding Dongs. Then, once in a solar eclipse, I hear something less perishable more enlightening — which says, “Listen to this!” Propagandas “Secret Wish” is one such album. Artistic, thoughtful, insightful, witty and inventive, (and that just in their liner notes, complete with a mini-thesis on the fear of living). Propaganda is a quartet of avant guardians who get their tone from the texture of their music. I gotta believe that Trevor Horn had a big hand in the translation from the quirky abstraction of their lyric to the digital dynamics of the recording. Without the appropriate arrangements and mix, Propaganda would probably be out there in the wake of Haleys Comet. Tracks like: DREAM WITHIN A DREAM, DUEL, THE CHASE, and DR. MABUSE give new hope to the craft of music-making. If you listen to one album this year, let it be Propagandas “Secret Wish”.