The Robocop Kraus

The Robocop Kraus delivers an eclectic sound rooted in post-punk, fronted by Thomas Lang on vocals and guitar alongside Matthias Wendl on guitar, Tobias Helmlinger on bass, Markus Steckert on organ and keyboards, and Hans Christian Fuss on drums. This five-piece indie rock outfit fuses the arty, angular approach of Gang of Four and Echo & the Bunnymen with the dance-inflected wave of the new millennium heard in Bloc Party and Art Brut. The group formed in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1998 with an original lineup of Lang, Wendl, Johannes Uschalt, and Roman Maul. A split EP with the Cherryville soon appeared on Swing Deluxe, the imprint started by Uschalt and Lang. Maul and Uschalt had left by the 1999 arrival of the compilation single "One Night in Bangkok" and the album Inferno Nihilistique 2000, at which point Steckert and Helmlinger joined. European tours ensued around the 2001 release of Tiger. The following year the band gathered its scattered tracks on the double-disc set As Long as We Dance We Are Not Dead. They Think They Are the Robocop Kraus arrived in February 2006 as the act's U.S. debut and fourth album overall, having been tracked in Stockholm with Pelle Gunnerfeldt of the Hives.