When we met journalist and ZTT sleevnote-ist Paul Morley last year he introduced us to his own child with the words, "This is Claudia Brücken's daughter". Morley clearly thought that the cultural significance of his ex-wife to men of a certain age overrides his own parental achievement. He was right.

Whilst never achieving the fame of label mates Frankie Goes To Hollywood, or the radio ubiquity of the Art of Noise, Propaganda possessed a mystique and Germanic cool that's sustained the memory of their initially brief career over the intervening decades. Their first three singles (included on this compilation) Dr Mabuse, Duel and p:Machinery still sound magnificent.

Unsmiling frontwoman Claudia was part Nico and part Marlene Dietrich (as re-imagined by Fritz Lang), speaksinging in a doomed and decadent voice that could go from a whisper to a scream within the same line. Following the split from Propaganda, she formed Act with synthpop pioneer Thomas Leer. Their first two singles, Absolutely Immune and Snobbery & Decay sound remarkably fresh, hearing them again after 24 years; the latter blending all the elements of the ZTT sound with a PSBs-esque panache.

The 90s solo singles are a revelation too. We don't recall hearing them back then but Kiss Like Ether reminds us of ABC, despite being freed from Stephen Lipsom and Trevor Horn's production by this point. Elsewhere we get a half-decent 2005 disco duet with Erasure's Andy Bell (that passed us by too) and a stack of new songs, including two produced by Stephen Hague, a surprisingly strong cover of Bowie's This Is Not America, with Frankie's Paul Rutherford and two tracks from her current project Onetwo (in partnership with OMD chap Paul Humphreys). What we thought might turn out to be unwelcome fillers have enjoyed repeat plays. Who knew?

What we've learned from Combined is we wrote Claudia Brücken off way too soon. She has most certainly still got it. 

Claudia Brücken: Combined (deluxe 'mini vinyl' CD) is out now.