You mean the mid-eighties, ZTT, Trevor Horn-produced German group?
They are one of the true gems of 80s pop, in my opinion. Steely, majestic, complex pop music that sounded almost impossibly good in 1986, and still does. I was hugely into their brilliant first single (
Dr. Mabuse). I am sorry to say I also bought all the pseudo-avantgarde crap Paul Morley couched the band in - the whole Zang-Tumb-Toom thing is a highly interesting lesson in eighties deviousness, if media manipulation masquerading as philosophy deserves so harsh a description.
They were, sadly, a one-album band though (that album being of course
A secret Wish). The follow-ups were pretty embarassing.
As for comparables, there aren't really any very good ones that spring to mind. You could mention the other Horn-produced bands of the time (ie, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Art of Noise), but they're not
that similar. I guess you could see some vague references to Krautrock or Einstürzende Neubaten, but this was really high-polished pop music by comparison.