New Wave Outpost Forum

Boytronic has a new release. The Robot Treatment.

If you're familiar with Boytronic, you know the sorted history of Boytronic.
Holger Wobker is the vocalist on this recording.

https://boytronic01.bandcamp.com/album/ ... ment-album


Also there's a reissue of the Kamerata Album: Lovers And Other Strangers, which was Holger Wobker and Ralf Martens produced by – Zeus B. Held

There's also a compilation released from Boytronic appropriately called 'Drama Compilation'.



Boytronic is a German music group that plays electropop. It was founded in 1983 by Holger Wobker and Peter Sawatzki in Hamburg, Germany as Kapitän Sehnsucht (Captain Desire). The original Boytronic released two synthpop albums: The Working Model (1983) and The Continental (1985). The record company, claiming rights to the band name, put together a completely different line-up in 1986. It was headed by Hayo Lewerentz (Hayo Panarinfo) (U96/Major Records) and continued to record under the Boytronic name until the mid-90's. In 2002, Boytronic was revived by Wobker from the original group and Panarinfo from the second incarnation. They released the albums "Autotunes", "Maxi" and remastered editions of "The Working Model" (Reverse) and "The Continental" (Replace) with bonus tracks. The albums was released on Hayo Lewerentz label Major Records.

Group members
1982–1985

Bryllyant Berger (aka Holger Wobker)
Peter Sawatzki-Bär
Klaus Stockhausen
Charly Schöppner (had his own band as well: "Electric Theatre")
Klaus Dufke

1986–1987

Hayo Lewerentz (Hayo Panarinfo)
Bela Lagonda

1987–1993

Mark Wade
Alberto Hauss (aka Bela Lagonda)
Hayo Lewerentz

1994–1995

Hayo Panarinfo
Bela Lagonda

2002–2005

Holger Wobker
Hayo Panarinfo

2006

Holger Wobker
Hans Johm (Antlers Mulm)
Michael Maria Ziffels

2017
Hayo Lewerentz
Alberto Ingo Hauss
James Knights

2018
Holger Wobker
James Knights

Discography

Albums

The Working Model (1983)
The Continental (1985)
Blueberry Pancake With Maple Syrup (unreleased) (1986)
Love for Sale (1988)
Boyzclub Remixes (1991)
The Heart And The Machine (1992)
A Feather on the Breath of God (unreleased) (1995)
Autotunes (2002)
The Working Model – Reverse (2003)
Maxi (2004)
The Continental (The Replace) (2005)
Dependence (November 2006)
Jewel (2017)
The Robot Treatment (2019)

Compilations

Boyzclub Remixes 1991
Maxi 2004
Stars Hits - 2006
The Original Maxi-Singles Collection 2014
Best Of album 2016
Drama Compilation 2019

Kamerata: (Holger Wobker, Ralf Martens)

Album: Lovers & Other Strangers


Singles

You (1983) GER No. 10
Diamonds And Loving Arms (1984)
You (US release) (1984)
Man In A Uniform (1984)
Hold On (1984)
Late Night Satellite (1985)
Hurts (1986)
You ('86 release) (1986)
Bryllyant (1986)
I Will Survive (1988)
Tears (1988)
Don't Let me Down (1988) GER No. 45
Trigger Track '89 (1989)
Hold On ('91 release) (1991)
You ('91 release) (1991)
Pictures Of You (1992)
My Baby Lost Her Way (1992)
Send Me An Angel (1994) GER No. 95
Blue Velvet (1995)
Living Without You 1 (2002)
Living Without You 2 (2002)
Time After Midnight (2017)
All You Can Eat (2019)

Very cool news - thanks for sharing!!

Curious to see if the the Kamerata reissue contains additional demo tracks, b-sides or remixes.

Also, would love to see the track "He Sells Heaven" released on the Boytronic collection. I know it's not as good as their early work with Holger on vocals, it's still catchy and unreleased.

I love The Robot Treatment. I've been a fan of Boytronic since the 80's and this new album sounds a lot like their first two albums. Holger's voice, 35 years later, is still pretty darn good. If you like the first two albums, you should love this one too. Ingo Hauss is aka Bela Lagonda and also aka Alberto Hauss. There is also Helmut Hoinkis from 1986-1993. I don't think he ever shows up in the artwork. You always see Mark, Hayo and Ingo. Oldwaver2, is the Kamerata being re-released on cd and are there any bonus tracks? I can't seem to find any info on that. The story behind the 2017 and 2018 Boytronic is a weird one. I love all the line ups though, great music all around.

Unfortunately. I just found out that Kamerata: Lovers And Other Strangers is just a digital/streaming issue and has no bonus tracks. That's sad!

That's too bad. Was really hoping they found some early demos, remixes or something to expand the release. What a great album that is!!

oldwaver2 wrote:Unfortunately. I just found out that Kamerata: Lovers And Other Strangers is just a digital/streaming issue and has no bonus tracks. That's sad!

Strange thing happened. When I first checked this album out, I was repulsed. It all seemed so grotesque somehow, tuneless formulaic music and horrible vocals (early Boytronic had probably the worst vocals of all synthpop of the time - well, up there with the best, sorry, worst of them at the very least). Hardly had patience to listen to the last track (as I made myself a rule to) and fully intended to write a scathing comment here.

And yet, today I somehow came upon this album - and now I'm on my third straight listen and am actually enjoying it all! Well, admittedly on the first song "Under the red" Wobker struggles with his tuneless voice, but after that he improves with each song (not that he starts to sing like an angel, but within his very limited range he finds ways to sound more than competent), and those songs are actually not half bad at all. Nothing revolutionary, of course, it's all a replay of early to mid 1980s synthpop, really very close to their first album (with modern production values, but those are not overbearing). Several songs, like "Wayward sister", "Smell of fire" and "She gave me money", are actually brilliant! Lyrics may put some off ("Smell of fire burns inside", yeah, that's one hell of an image ), but as I'm not a native English speaker they're alright by me. And thankfully not all of the music is covered by vocals, there's enough space for instrumental runs, which is always great.

Overall, I now change my mind completely and fully recommend this album for a couple of listens, at least. What happened to me may happen to you as well!

P.S. Oh yes, their previous album from 2017 or so, with a (then) new vocalist, is apparently not at all bad, too. That's the one that sounds more modern, more aggressive and dancey, but what I've heard from it is very nice. You may want to check it out also.

Being a hardcore Boytronic fan, I have to admit Holger's voice is hard to like right away. When I first heard Boytronic, I was like this is pretty cool but I'm not liking the vocals. But I tried again and then a few more times and then it kind of caught on. I started to like his voice. It sounded different from everyone else and it kind of goes well with the music. After awhile, it just sounded really cool. Once you get to that point, you like all the early Boytronic's and Kamerata. Anyways, this last album I thought was pretty good. There are some songs which were kind of funky sounding but the majority really sounds like the first two Boytronic albums. Holger's voice is older now but he still sounds like Holger and James Knight fills in when he can. Anyways, glad you ended up liking this latest album Passing_Stranger.

Sean, yes, you are right, you have to persist with this band. Perhaps it's best not to concentrate too much on the vocals, try to take it as another instrument somehow or something like that. It sounds better on faster songs, so it's only a good thing that the new album is quite uptempo.

Actually Boytronic did one of my best-loved songs - "Luna square", so I'm prepared to give them time and attention. I once did a run-through of the discography under the band's name - and formed equal appreciation for "Working model", "The Heart and The Machine" and "Dependence", with lots of songs from albums in-between. So it's only natural I had to check the latest offering out. Glad not to disappointed in the end