Egotronic is a German

electropunk Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...

band from Berlin formed in 2000. It is well known for its Antideutsch political views.

Band history

After a couple of projects released through

self-publishing Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...

, Egotronic joined the Hamburg record label

Audiolith Records Audiolith Records is a German Independent record label from Bahrenfeld, Hamburg, which publishes mainly Electronic music and Indie rock. While the bands under the label have varied musical styles, the label's main focus is on Electropunk, where it ...

in 2005, whereon their first single ''Nein nein/Luxus'' (''No no/luxury'') got released. The band went on a tour through Russia (accompanied by the artist Plemo) during the same year. In 2006, Egotronic released their first album ''Die richtige Einstellung'' (''The right attitude''). The second album, ''Lustprinzip'' (''Pleasure principle'') followed in 2007, the third one in 2008. Its fourth album, called ''Ausflug mit Freunden'' (''Excursion with friends''), on which almost every song is a cooperation with friends of Egotronic, was released on 30 April 2010. Their fifth album ''Macht keinen Lärm'' (''Don't be noisy'') is heavily influenced by classic punk music, making heavy use of guitars, and pop music, featuring more melodic and less trashy songs compared to earlier albums.

Genre

In their style, the band combines the attitude and the sociocritical pretensions of punk rock with elements from Electronic music and

Synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

. Egotronic closely cooperates with other Audiolith bands, such as Frittenbude or Saalschutz, which also show stylistic similarities. One of Egotronic's characteristics is the extensive use of Commodore 64 and Atari sounds, which are, however, produced on contemporary computers. Especially sounds that are well-known from classic computer games are often used in the songs; even the music videos are reminiscent of those old computer games.

Political activism

Egotronic participates in the initiative ''

I Can't Relax in Deutschland I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

'', which is an organization of artists, who criticize German patriotism and an increasing nationalization of pop culture. In its lyrics, Egotronic often communicates political messages, for example on the debates on

Leitkultur ''Leitkultur'' is a German concept, which can be translated as 'guiding culture' or 'leading culture', less literally as 'common culture', 'core culture' or 'basic culture'. The term was first introduced in 1998 by the German-Arab sociologist Bass ...

Jürgen Möllemann Jürgen Wilhelm Möllemann (15 July 1945 – 5 June 2003) was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as Minister of State at the Foreign Office (1982–1987), as Minister of Education and Research (1987–1991), a ...

. In the song ''Nicht nur Raver'' (''Not just ravers''), Egotronic takes a stand in the discussion on the

Riot of Rostock-Lichtenhagen From August 22 to August 24, 1992 violent xenophobic riots took place in the Lichtenhagen district of Rostock, Germany; these were the worst mob attacks against migrants in postwar Germany. Stones and petrol bombs were thrown at an apartment block ...

and the Mügeln mob attack. Egotronic's

anti-German Anti-German can refer to *Anti-Germans (political current), a branch of anti-nationalist ideology in Germany *Anti-German sentiment Anti-German sentiment (also known as Anti-Germanism, Germanophobia or Teutophobia) is opposition to or fear o ...

attitude is subject to criticism, even within the left scene. Public attention was drawn to the band for its Rave-style version of the English football song ''

Ten German Bombers "Ten German Bombers" is a children's song, originally sung by British schoolchildren during World War II, and also the British Military. It has been adopted as a football chant by English football fans at matches against Germany. The song has rec ...

'', which got released on the occasion of the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIFA), the ...

in 2006. The leftist nationwide newspaper ''

taz Taz or TAZ may refer to: Geography * Taz (river), a river in western Siberia, Russia * Taz Estuary, the estuary of the river Taz in Russia People * Taz people, an ethnic group in Russia ** Taz language, a form of Northeastern Mandarin spoken ...

'' reported on the song.taz
2. Juni 2006

Discography

Singles: *2005 Nein Nein/Luxus *2007 Lustprinzip *2008 Kotzen *2009 Es muß stets hell für Gottes Auge sein *2010 Was soll's *2010 Ich kanns nicht sagen (feat. Midimúm) *2011 Rannte der Sonne hinterher (feat. Mirco) *2013 The Lost Tapes EP *2014 Noch nicht vorbei *2014 Kriegserklärung / Dreck Scheisse Pisse (Split-Single mit Grim 104) Albums: *2006 Die Richtige Einstellung *2007 Lustprinzip *2008 Egotronic *2010 Ausflug mit Freunden *2011 Macht Keinen Lärm *2014 Die Natur ist dein Feind *2017 Keine Argumente!

References

External links

Official websiteMySpace page
{{Authority control German electronic music groups Musical groups from Berlin Political music groups