Having released nine or ten LPs over 16 years, New Brunswick, NJ's
Croc Shop (formerly Crocodile
Shop) are one of those electronic industrial bands that has built up a loyal following, yet has remained off the radar for the rest of indie-dom. But the genre is a stubborn one, going back to pioneering efforts by
Front 242 (
Croc Shop have opened for them) and
Nitzer Ebb, and have been pulled along here in the 1980s by a rabid scene down South (especially in Florida).
Croc Shop have managed to stand out from the hordes of like-minded computer programmer/musician geeks with their background in Goth and
Joy Division,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, '80s
Wire (with whom leader Mick Hale toured back then, as a member of the Ex-Lion Tamers, a side-band that performed
Wire's first two LPs start to finish!), and even
the Chameleons, whose guitarist, Dave Fielding, produced their first LP in 1987. For all their oblique worldviews, impatience with injustice, and unforgiving moods, Hale still finds ways to put out a strong and recognizable tune and a direct lyric, as well as a human vocal amidst all the bleeps and boops and harsh dance beats of the EBM techno style -- a little life in the dark and cold, inhuman robot sound. ~ Jack Rabid