“Perpetual Sequence” is the ninth full-length album by Croc Shop, the electronic based act featuring long time members Mick Hale and vMarkus. From that new album the band now presents a brand new track and video: “Midnight”.

The 11-track album itself is available from Bandcamp. You’ll notice that the band goes for a post-electro, pop & synth-rock approach with occasional nods to their goth-rock and electro-industrial origins.

From Crocodile Shop to Croc Shop

Originally formed as Crocodile Shop in a flat above a record store in West Berlin, the band was formed after Hale and Werner ended their previous new wave project, Mod Fun. Originally a three-piece band (guitar, bass and drums) with drummer John Figlar of Lord John fame, the group’s first release was the 1987 EP entitled “Head” released on the Minneapolis-based Susstones Records. The band released their debut album, “Lullaby”, in 1988. Produced by Dave Fielding of The Chameleons, the record displayed dark goth-rock influences, but they subsequently transitioned towards an electronic-industrial sound as they began replacing band members with machines, releasing “Celebrate the Enemy” in 1993.

Crocodile Shop’s debut on CD came about in 1993 with the release of the album “Celebrate the Enemy” on Tinman Records. The album was produced by Chris Randall of Wax Trax! Records and Sister Machine Gun. The album was followed up by the remix EP “Crush Your Enemies”.

In 1995 they signed to Metropolis Records and issued the albums “Beneath”, “Pain”, “Everything Is Dead And Gone”, “Order + Joy” and “World”. The last of these was their first album under the shortened name Croc Shop. On a sidenote, Side-Line magazine called “Order + Joy” Crocodile Shop’s “best album ever”, hailing it as a return to their earlier and gritter EBM sound.

As the band’s popularity in the electro-underground grew, Mick Hale began working on other side projects releasing two electro-dub albums under the name Division #9, and teaming up with V. Markus as progGREX.iv.

2004 saw the release of “SEA” (Self Extracting Archive), which was a double CD “Best Of”. Pursuing other musical interests, group mainstays Hale and vMarkus then took a longer than expected break from recording together.

Fifteen years later the band began to work on new material that resulted in “Resist!”, a nine song digital album released in 2020, followed by “(TRiP): The Rest In Pieces”, a thirty track “Rest Of” Croc Shop that featured tracks not included on “SEA” as well as a number of remixes.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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“Perpetual Sequence” is the 9th full-length album by Croc Shop, featuring long time members Mick Hale and vMarkus. “Perpetual Sequence” will be released by Metropolis Records on March 5th, 2021 through all digital and streaming formats.

The duo went for a post-electro, pop and synth-rock approach on these 11 tracks with occasional nods to their goth-rock and electro-industrial origins.

Here’s the video for “Silver”.

About Croc Shop

Crocodile Shop (later simply Croc Shop) was originally conceived in a flat above a record shop in Berlin Germany in 1987 by Mick Hale and R. A. Werner after they ended their previous new wave project, Mod Fun. The band, inspired by the “darker” post-punk sounds of Joy Division, New Order, Wire, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and The Jesus and Mary Chain, released their debut album in 1988 which was produced by Dave Fielding of the Chameleons UK.

Eventually, the band would slowly abandon the “guitar goth” sound, first replacing their drummer with a drum machine, releasing the Red Lorry Yellow Lorry influenced “Measure By Measure” EP and then finally with the addition of keyboard player V. Markus, (who was influenced by the likes of Front 242, Laibach and Nitzer Ebb), they turned to an entirely electronic-based outfit which was clearly audible on the fully electro-industrial sounding EP “Technological Optimism”.

Crocodile Shop’s debut on CD came about in 1993 with the release of the album “Celebrate the Enemy” on Tinman Records. In 1995, Crocodile Shop signed to Metropolis Records. The bandname change happend in 2002 when they started operating under the shortened name Croc Shop.

Here’s the band’s album discography:

• Head – 12″ (1987) Susstones Records
• Lullaby – 12″ LP (1988) Susstones Records
• Measure By Measure – 7″ EP Susstones Records
• Technological Optimism – 12″ EP DAMn! (crocshop.com)
• Celebrate the Enemy – LP (1993) Danse Assembly Productions • CD (1994) Tinman Records
• Crush Your Enemies – CD (1995) Tinman Records
• Beneath – CD Album (1996) Metropolis • CD Album (1997) Out of Line
• Metalwerks – CD EP (1997) Out of Line/Semaphore
• Pain – CD Album (1997) Metropolis • CD Album (1997) Out of Line, Sub/Mission Records • 2xCD Ltd. Edition (1997) Out of Line, Sub/Mission Records/SPV
• Soviet – CD Ltd. Edition (1998) Tinman Records
• Everything is Dead and Gone – CD Album (1999) Metropolis
• Order + Joy – CD Album (2000) Metropolis
• Wrong – CD Maxi (2000) DAMn! (crocshop.com)
• World – CD Album (2002) Metropolis
• Translated – CD EP (2003) DAMn! (crocshop.com)
• CROC_SHOP.SEA (Self Extracting Archive) – 2xCD (2004) DAMn! (crocshop.com)
• “Resist!” – Digital Album (2020) DAMn! (croc shop.com)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: EBM.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Set up in the late 80s in Berlin (Germany) Crocodile Shop (later on renamed Croc Shop) released several productions during the 90s –mainly on Metropolis Records. Nearly twenty years after their last album (cf. “World” released in 2002) the band strikes back with new work. Core member Nick Hale got inspired by the election of Trump who in a way awakened the political engagement of Croc Shop.

Content: “Resist” features 9 songs, which are clearly driven by the good-old EBM vibes of the band. This is retro-EBM reminding me of the 90s. You’ll rapidly notice the engagement emerging at the surface by the multiple spoken samplings from Donald Trump. The way of using the samplings mixed with real vocals are here again reminding me of the 90s.

+ + + : “Resist” could have been written in the 90s. It’s old-school and yet it has something refreshing; a kind of sweet, danceable EBM with a message on top. I like the most danceable pieces like the opener “Empowered”, “Pride” and “Unwanted”. The last mentioned song is carried by a solid bass line.

– – – : I like this old-school approach of making EBM, but I’m missing a climax in the work.

Conclusion: Do we have to be grateful to Trump, who clearly inspired a forgotten EBM formation to strike back? This is a pleasant work, which will appeal for all retro-lovers and die-hard fans of Croc Shop.

Best songs: “Empowered”, “Pride”, “Unwanted”, “Corruption”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.crocshop.com / www.facebook.com/crocshop

About Croc Shop

Croc Shop, originally known as Crocodile Shop, formed in Berlin, Germany, in the late 1980s. The band released several productions during the 1990s, mainly through Metropolis Records, before going quiet after “World” in 2002. Core member Nick Hale revived the project nearly two decades later, citing the election of Donald Trump as a catalyst for its renewed political engagement.

“Resist”, released in 2021, marked that return. Croc Shop followed it the same year with the album “Perpetual Sequence”, previewed with the single and video “Midnight”.

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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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