Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Onetwo

Details: Written by: Daniela Vorndran; Published: 28 April 2007

Kulturfabrik, Krefeld, Germany
27th April 2007
Onetwo, Technoir

Who does not remember the Glam-Goth pioneers PROPAGANDA? Yes, it is long ago. But hits like ‘Dr. Mabuse’ belong to any 80s party. The dance floor orientated music of the band from Düsseldorf was following the tradition of KRAFTWERK and CAN. But also the Liverpool situated band OMD will have never been forgotten. OMD is one of the fathers of Synth Pop. Now, the two protagonists of those bands came together for a new project: Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys are ONETWO. During their live shows, the band presents new arranged hits of OMD and PROPAGANDA, such as ‘Electricity’ Or ‘Dr. Mabuse’, as well as new material which is theatric, but also entertaining and melodic. As support act, the German Synth Pop band TECHNOIR opened the evening.

Technoir

After Steffen has been writing and recording his first songs which were never released, he started looking for a female singer to create something new in the harder sounding electro genre. He met Julia Beyer at a concert of the band INSIDE (former side project of PSYCHE singer Darrin Huss) where she was delivering the backing vocals. Both had experiences in bands before and from now on, they started to develop songs together. First recorded song was ‘Last Tears’. In the German label Bloodline they found a partner releasing their songs. First release was the singe ‘Requiem’ in August 2001 followed by the full-length album ‘Groundlevel’ two months later. In the following time, Steffen was highly requested as remixer while Julia delivered several guest vocals for other bands, such as to MELOTRON’s ‘Folge mir ins Licht’. After the band released the ‘Manifesto’ EP in summer 2006 they now have a brand new album in stock: ‘Deliberately Fragile’ which has been released on the Alfa Matrix label. TECHNOIR are Julia Beyer (vocals, lyrics), Steffen Gehring (music, production) and Stephan Altengarten (additional live keys). http://www.technoir.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/technoirmusic

Music
Opening a concert night is never easy… and when it is hot outside in April like in the heights of summer and you are as a singer suffering from heavy hay fever, it is even more difficult. You could hear it slightly in her voice that she had problems, but it was not that much and TECHNOIR did a very good job this evening. For the intro, the two male band members entered the stage and prepared the audience for the things to come. For ‘Dying star’ Julia joined in. The main focus of the set was clearly on the current album ‘Deliberately Fragile’ from which six of nine songs have been played. With the new songs, the band once more proves how to deliver catchy melodies and atmospheric sounds in emotional ballads or danceable club tracks where the sounds are combined with Julia’s very personal lyrics. The second half of the set was dominated by older songs, such as the club hit ‘Requiem’ and ‘Growing’ - both from the ‘Groundlevel’ album. Last song was a wonderful cover version of DEPECHE MODE’s ‘In your Memory’ which is quite and uncommon song for a cover version because it is only available as a single B-side. But that unusualness made the special charm of the song.

Performance
Yes, it is a typical Synth band performance with a singer and two keyboard players. But somehow it is not. Singer Julia adds the very emotional part to the show. You can feel how deeply sunk she is into her music when she stands there singing with closed eyes. The audience reacted very positive to the band and gave a lot of applause what was happily accepted on stage. Anyone was in a good mood. The only sad thing was, that TECHNOIR as support act did not have much light on stage. All musicians were mostly covert in dark with only a little mostly red light from the back. Really sad because Julia is a pretty girl people want o look at, I guess. ;)

Setlist
01. Intro
02. Dying Star
03. Breathe (Dance)
04. Liar
05. Manifesto
06. Everything I cannot have
07. Requiem
08. Silence
09. Growing
10. In your Memory (Depeche Mode cover)

Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Light 5
Sound 8
Total 7.6

Onetwo

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). http://www.theremusic.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/weareonetwo

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’ - a PINK FLOYD cover version - and ‘Home (Tonight)’ were more songs from the ‘Instead’ album followed by ‘Cloud 9’ which is a song writing collaboration of Claudia and DEPECHE MODE’s song writer Martin L. Gore whose unique guitar style is also featured on the track. Within the encore, ‘A Vision In The Sky’ was the last ONETWO track being played on the evening.

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. After OMD’s ‘Messages’ my first highlight of the evening was one of my PROPAGANDE favorites - ‘Dr. Mabuse’ - which was highly acclaimed by the audience with lots of cheering and strong applause. During the OMD song ‘Forever (Live & Die)’, Claudia and Paul changed places so Paul took over the microphone and even was dancing on the stage. He really seemed to enjoy the evening. ‘Souvenir’ by OMD was very touching. The main set ended with two PROPAGANDA songs: ‘Snobbery and Decay’ and ‘Duel’. But that was not enough. Of course the band had to come again for two times. Besides one ONETWO song, those encored belonged to OMD. During ‘If you leave’ the whole hall was singing and dancing. The set finished with a great ‘Electricity’ version – maybe even the highlight of the whole show and definitely a great final of a perfect evening.

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
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17. If you leave
18. A vision in the Sky
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19. Electricity

Rating
Music 10
Performance 10
Light 8
Sound 8
Total 9.4