Gleis 9, Bochum, Germany6th December 2025
xPropaganda- “Best of Propaganda & More”
PROPAGANDA was a German band that took the world by storm in the 1980s. With their synth sound, the Düsseldorf-based band perfectly captured the taste of the youth of that era. PROPAGANDA was founded by Ralf Dörper, Andreas Thein and Susanne Freytag, with Michael Mertens and Claudia Brücken joining later. After the first single, ‘Dr. Mabuse’, Andreas Thein left the band and Propaganda continued as a quartet.
After several break-ups and reunions, Susanne Freytag and Claudia Brücken have been performing under the name XPROPAGANDA since 2022. https://www.xpropaganda.co.uk / https://www.facebook.com/xPropagandaOfficial
Music & Performance
XPROPAGANDA at Gleis9 Bochum - Electronic elegance on St. Nicholas’ Eve - On 6 December, XPROPAGANDA transformed Bochum’s Gleis9 into a place of electronic nostalgia and modern sound art. The hall was filled to capacity when the band took to the stage at 8 p.m. sharp and the first notes of ‘The Night’ from their current album ‘The Heart Is Strange’ rang out. Shortly afterwards, Claudia Brücken stepped into the spotlight and was greeted with thunderous applause - a clear sign of how much the audience had been looking forward to this evening.
‘Chasing Utopia,’ another track from the latest album, followed immediately, before Susanne Freytag finally joined in for ‘Murder Of Love,’ completing the duo in its familiar formation. Throughout the evening, XPROPAGANDA offered an impressive mix of new songs and timeless classics. Of course, songs such as ‘Sorry for Laughing’, ‘Dream Within a Dream’, ‘Dr. Mabuse’ and the iconic ‘P-Machinery’ were not to be missed - tracks that have stood for the project’s unmistakable aesthetic for decades and were celebrated accordingly by the fans at Gleis9.
The musicians had saved something special for the encore: the powerful THROBBING GRISTLE cover ‘Disziplin’, which XPROPAGANDA traditionally perform in German - a piece that had lost none of its raw intensity on this evening. The grand finale was ‘Duel’, which rounded off the evening with a mixture of nostalgia, emotion and energetic brilliance. XPROPAGANDA delivered a concert in Bochum that both evoked memories and set new accents. A thrilling St. Nicholas’ Day evening for all fans of electronic avant-garde.
Setlist
01. The Night
02. Chasing Utopia
03. Murder of Love
04. Sorry for Laughing
05. Don't You Mess with Me
06. Frozen Faces
07. Beauty is Truth
08. Dream Within a Dream
09. The Chase
10. Only Human
11. Dr. Mabuse
12. The Wolves Are Returning
13. P Machinery
14. Ribbons of Steel
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15. Disziplin
16. Duel
All pictures by Andreas Klüppelberg
