Chrome: C or D?

Save yourself, especially your ears the trouble. It's no good without Creed. The Chrome Box is a bargan

Alien Soundtracks
Read only memory
Half machine lip moves
Red exposure (maybe their most accessible?)
Blood on the moon
Inworlds
Chronicles 1&2
A few tracks on subterr. modern

I dont find he 3rd from the sun alb very interesting....

My favourite Chrome rel is probably the read only memory mini lp.

3rd from the Sun, the vocals start to bug at this point and it's not as fucked as earlier, but yeah, the guitars & the basic sound still miles ahead.

Chrome Box out of print, but Anthology 1979-1983 is still in print and has all the tracks from the Subterranean Modern compilation... Half Machine / Alien Soundtracks still the one place to start though. they're much more than just a cult band, their time's still to come

In 1976, Damon Edge and Gary Spain formed Chrome in San Francisco. According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the line-up for the recording of The Visitation consisted of John Lambdin (vocals, guitar, bass), Gary Spain (vocals, guitar, bass), Mike Low (guitar, synthesizer, bass) and Damon Edge (guitar,synthesizer, drums). John was the only one with any "experience" having performed with the Flower Travellin' Band, an early '70s Japanese psychedelic group.

After recording Visitation, Mike Low left and auditions were held to fill the void. Chrome did not like H at first since he showed up to the audition dressed in some kind of pirate outfit. After jamming for some time (hours-weeks?) it was clear to Damon that H was "the one" and he then convinced the other band members.

Helios added something to the group that was missing, and the albums that poured out over the next several years all have a similar "Chrome" sound to them.

John Lambdin disapeared after Alien Soundtracks. It was during this period that Chrome really only consisted of Damon and Helios. Gary Spain was only credited on two of the songs on their next release, Half Machine Lip Moves. In fact, John L. Cyborg, a psuedonym for the drum machine, was created to make it look like there were others in the band.

The recording sessions for Blood on the Moon and 3rd From the Sun included brothers John and Hillary Stench, who had just ended their stint with Pearl Harbor and the Explosions which split up in late '80.

In 1981 a group of Italian fans urged Chrome to come to Italy and perform live. They must have made quite an offer, since Chrome had never performed live for an audience before. After a single practice gig in San Francisco at the Mabuhay Gardens, the show at the Palasport in Bologne on July 20th was the second and last Chrome concert. At least for a while. [ Correction: The Italian show was first, followed by the San Francisco show on August 21st. ]

Apparently, Damon and Helios slowly became estranged over the issue of touring. Helios wanted to go out and do live shows while Damon did not. San Francisco's Chrome came to a grinding halt when Damon moved to Berlin with his girlfriend(?) Fabienne Shine.

While in Europe, Damon released some albums under his own name, and also formed a new Chrome lineup. Damon apparently acquired the legal rights to the Chrome name and recordings. He re-released some of Chrome's earlier recordings, while producing additional material with his new band. The sound of Damon's Berliner Chrome was quite different from the original San Francisco incarnation. Two "live" albums were released durring this time, although it is disputed whether the material was really recorded live.

Meanwhile, Helios Creed formed his own band back in San Francisco. He lived in a modified school bus which was often seen parked on the streets bordering Golden Gate Park. H and his band toured endlessly world wide and had a diverse following (some of whom knew nothing of Chrome). HC hit the college charts and jumped genres between punk-metal-thrash and phych.

Damon Edge died in Los Angeles the summer of 1995 at an early age. The official cause of death was heart failure. Apparently distraught over his break up with Fabiene Shine, Damon had become an obese shut-in, drinking heavily. He lay dead in his apartment for almost a month before being discovered.

Tommy met him once or twice and had few phone conversations. After Damon died, Tommy purchased a bunch of his music equipment from Damon's sister, including his Moog Liberation with the last "real" Chrome set list still taped to the back.

Shortly after Damon's death, Helios decided that he wanted to restore Chrome to it's San Francisco roots. H contacted John and Hillary to do some new recordings as Chrome. The results were released in September '96 on the 3rd Seed from the Bud single.

Meanwhile, in the Spring of 1996, Tommy L. Cyborg (Hawkwind, Farflung) and Nova Cain recorded a song modeled after the original Chrome sound and sent it to Helios on DAT. Helios liked it. He added some vocals and perhaps a bit else, and the song later appeared as Fudge Bunny on Tidal Forces.

Nova Explains: "I of course was always a huge fan, my involvement basically came from my association w/ Tommy. I
had put out records by Farflung and we became good friends and discovered we were both huge Chrome fans. Tommy was friends w/ Helios, he got Helios to play guitar on the Nik Turner Space Ritual tour, when Helios wanted to do Chrome again he called Tommy, Tommy asked if I could come and played Helios this song we had recorded together. Helios liked it, said sure, we went and recorded. That song incidently is Fudge Bunny."

Tommy and Nova did some additional recording around Thanksgiving of '96. Asked if the material for Retro and Tidal were recorded at the same time, Nova responds:

"More or less, in fact if you listen really closely you can hear some of the same elements in both recordings.You see, when Tommy and I went the first time, H didn't really want to jam together and he had 5 or 6 songs nearly done. So Tommy and I did overdubs on them and then recorded 3 10 minute improv pieces. These sort of became songs on both albums."

December 1997: Buz Deadwax, former guitarist of the bands Seed and Smartyr (which included Aleph Kali on drums and Rodney Horihata on bass) was looking for a gig. He tells this story after meeting up with Galaxy Chamber:

"We didn't jive, but they mentioned that they knew H and that he was looking for a drummer for Chrome. I referred them to Aleph, who called H, who asked Aleph if he knew any bass players and Aleph called me and we freaked out for a while."

"Aleph, Rodney and I are all gigantic Chrome/Creed fans and own close to everything. Just for the fun of it, Rodney and I once lugged a ton of our own equipment to Gillman Street to do sound and vocal effects for a Creed show. At one point between songs, H starting saying something to the audience. We had fucked with the sound so much that he sounded like a mumbling obese dwarf on helium falling down a pit filled with roofing tar. I killed the effects so you could hear what he was saying and he looked up at me and said, "Hey man! Waderya doin?!" so I put the juice back on and he was happy again. I learned my lesson."

"Anyway, after the downers and coffee took hold, Aleph and I started to rehearse ALL the Chrome material (well the GOOD stuff, anyway) since H didn't tell us what songs he wanted to do. So in 4 rehearsals we learned everything and went up to Guernville where we found out we learned everything in the wrong key! NO, Chrome did not "tune down" or mess with the speed of the tapes (except where obvious). We had to talk him into doing "Subway" and a few others but the set came together pretty easily with lots of old stuff."

"H told us that he really wanted to "set the record straight" and regain Chrome's reputation from Damon. The breakup was apparently really bad and I think that neither one ever really got over it. Damon was the introvert-agoraphobic and Helios is the extrovert-claustrophobic so it was doomed to die at some point."

"H, Aleph and I practiced on weekends for a month or so. Tommy and Nova came up from LA and we played for one weekend with the whole band! We then left for the tour."

The tour ran through 19 American cities in March and April 1998. For details see the tour info section and Buz's report from the road.

In Decemer 1998, H contacted the touring group to try to get another record together and possibly another tour. Unfortunately, Buz had prior commitments and could not participate. Rodney Horihata was called in and rehearsed/recorded 13[!] new songs with Aleph. What became of those songs I do not know.

In early 2000 Helios got the itch to tour again and a short tour of the west coast was haphazardly planned and executed. There was little promotion compared to the previous tour and the turnout was poor at all the shows except for San Francisco. Most of the band members ended up subsidizing the tour out of their own pocket.

To be continued...

From the 'official' chrome site:
http://www.staticwhitesound.com/chrome/history.htm

Was looking through my rekkids at the weekend and pulled out the sleeve for Half Machine. Love the way they've created that strange vision of the future with so little resources. Had never really noticed that gangster movie going on in that shot before.

Any of those Creed solo recs any good?

John was the only one with any "experience" having performed with the Flower Travellin' Band, an early '70s Japanese psychedelic group.

whaaaaaa...?!

let's hear some LOVE for "the visitation," come on!

Surprised to see no contributions from NYC so far - Alex has just got to love this lot, hasn't he?

wow. what were you listening to at the time?

but the deal was settled on 'alien soundtracks', total cassette pause cut-up garage faust, about four minutes into 'pygmies in zee dark' where the song hollows out and suddenly it flips into this mutant lurch with a burning braindead guitar riff, and then that's followed up _instantly_ with 'slip it to the android'... it's just fuck yeah

at the time i was probably listening to...parliament? cab.vol?

throwing 'slip it to the android' on your mix CD

Anyway, Half Machine Lip Moves & Alien Soundtracks totally classic. 3rd from the Sun isn't quite up there but I've enjoyed it so far.

Maybe I'll go look for Helios Creed stuff on Slsk later, never heard any.

this is based solely on half machine lip moves/alien sdtrks. is this 3rd from the sun album worth it?

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0032,tracker_writer.inc,16664,.html

Hey, I used to own that Skin Yard debut on C/Z! It was during that brief post-Bleach/pre-Nevermind period when I bought just about ANYTHING Sub Pop-related. But I didn't play the Skin Yard much and eventually sold it. Then I found the CD used and reacquired it, only to find that the instrumental cut (my favourite) was now minus the saxophone track - WTF?!

Oh, and CLASSIC, obviously! Alien Soundtracks/Half Machine Lip Moves is truly fucked up.

Or, did I misunderstand? ;)

ILM patrons may be interested to know that David Tibet wants your Chrome rarities NOW - see the Durtro site for details.

ugh. wish i could just post my whim of the day on a website and have people send me cds and lps by the ton.

hahahaha. i first heard helios thru the amrep label, and the record i owned had singing along the lines of the above description. had a very "wtf?" vibe to it.

The first disc (best of) starts out with five great cuts from HMLM, but they are edited terribly. They add "Danger Zone" from the 12" single (1981); "Isolation" from Red Exposure; "The Need" and "Brain Scan" from Blood on the Moon; "Shadows of a Thousand Years" and "Future Ghosts" from 3rd from the Sun; plus "Gehenna Lion" and the great single "Anorexic Sacrifice".

As far as The Visitation, I am still fond of the phaser-drenched instrumental waltz, "Nova Feedback". But Alien Soundtracks was a HUGE step forward... or s'ways.

If you were listening to Cabaret Voltaire back then, you could have put "Nag Nag Nag" on a mix tape with Half Machine Lip Moves!

I think the songs on the Visitation were initially recorded as a porno movie soundtrack (no joke!)

how is liquid forest and no humans allowed?

anyone?

No Humans rules.

I really prefer contemporaries like VON LMO, the Twinkeyz, and Todd Tamanend Clark.

(sorry, not to those records but to Chrome in general)

I love Chrome

we are familiar with your wrongness on this issue, tim.

and your defensiveness!

Pere Ubu > Chrome > Debris > MX-80 Sound > Twinkeez > VON LMO > Todd Tamanend Clark

VON LMO > Todd Tamanend Clark > Twinkeyz > Pere Ubu > Debris > MX-80 Sound = Chrome

I cannot get behind that theory there, and I own and like the Twinkeyz LP. But I haven't heard the Clark CD.

No Humans Allowed is a patchwork LP that includes most of the Read Only Memory EP, a 12" from a year or two later, and (I think) a B-side from a single. All of it is stun-tastically great scifi heavy metal riffage. The 12" ("Dangerzone" and "In A Dream") is a particular favorite of mine.

I love all these artists, but Chrome will always have a special place in my heart. I just found out the new Noiseville re-releases of "Alien Soundtracks" and "Half Machine Lip Moves" and couldn't help to buy them again.

I don't think I've ever heard Twinkeyz or Debris. But Chrome are better than Von LMO and Todd Tamanend Clark (both of whom I like) for sure. Pere Ubu (when they were great) are head and tails above all these bands, and between MX-80 and Chrome it's a tossup.

chuck you should hear both the twinkeyz and debris. seriously.

Both bands were great: I'm particularly fond of Debris', another perfect encapsulation of everything I love about 70's American rock.

Todd Tamanend Clark is like a warmed-over Jandek - total WFMU fodder. Chrome, on the other hand, doesn't get the attention it deserves - it's like nobody even knows they exist.

chrome is fucking great

By the way, Happy Dragon Band or Creme Soda, anyone?
Not as crazy as the artists mentioned below but still weirdly unbalanced in their own way.
Also, Bobb Trimble comes to mind - "Another lonely angel" is one of the most unsettling songs I ever heard.

i gotta hear twinkeyz at some point, i think i'd really like them. chrome are, of course, godhead. one of the only bands i've ever heard described as "acid punk" that actually justifies the term. i want the chrome box so bad ;_;

chrome is fucking great

I have the Chrome Box - it's not bad, but they cut all the albums on it short.

Todd Tamanend Clark is like a warmed-over Jandek - total WFMU fodder.

wha? i don't hear that at all, unless we're talking lo-fi basement sound quality.

By the way, Happy Dragon Band or Creme Soda, anyone?

i guess the former cause i haven't heard creme soda. another one for the list. HDB are pretty bizarre.

xp - better than not having any of them! i used to have blood on the moon via the magic of computers but no more.

(any of them save half machine/alien soundtracks)

someone reissue the box set. with the whole albums. anyone. soon.

nah TTC has some pretty awesome songs; I guess as far as the DIY lofi goes

i guess the former cause i haven't heard creme soda. another one for the list. HDB are pretty bizarre

yeah, they made a truly bizarre lp. I love that album, I just would like to know a little more about the guy who was behind this project.

Yay more Chrome love. Yay also the Bobb Trimble mention, which I am not surprised to find Marco likes.

I only have Trimble's second album, and I like it a lot.
Don't know why, but I find its cover (the black & white shot with the unicorn) rather disturbing.

Supposedly it's all being reissued properly, at least that was Kris Thompson of Abunai! was telling me.

Wow, how is it I've never encountered the name Todd Tamanend Clark?! I love this sort of stuff. And there appears to be a double-disc comp on Anopheles! I gotta check this guy out...

[BTW, the proper hierarchy is: MX-80 Sound > Pere Ubu > Debris > Von LMO > Twinkeyz > Chrome. But who cares, it's all good. Oh, and Simply Saucer belong in there too, somewhere in the middle.]

Check him...there's some fantastic stuff in there.

I didn't think I was going to like The Visitation (debut recorded before Helios) but it is great. Closer to 70's weird Southern anthem rock, but still weird ringmod details and over the top vocals keep it mutant, and the songs are deep

the 3 CD Chrome Box is good for compiling some of the odd singles but it's true, it leaves out way too much, you need the albums

Checked out TTC and Twinkeyz on myspace - low-fi with sci-fi for sure, but nothing to compare with Chrome's incredible waves of distorted noise. Surprised people don't like 'Third from the sun' - I really rate it.

anyone see them in portland like a month ago? kinda disappointing. the show itseflt was great, as it included smegma and soriah, but chrome just seemed a little limp, even the guitar tonez weren't that cool :( i was really sad

Well, since I'm the only one taking the stance, I'll elaborate. Twinkeyz and Todd Clark and VON LMO - IMO - had songwriting skills that were at least as good (sometimes better), had more spirit, and were more fun. I don't get the big Chrome canonization at all.

Pere Ubu is incredibly overrated. Their first couple singles were real good. Like, as good as the Twinkeyz' first couple singles. Which is saying something. They took a dive when they went to the one guitar lineup.

And, yeah, Todd Clark is nothing like Jandek. At his best, his music sounds like Chrome or somebody playing eight minute long through-composed '60s garage band psychedelic songs with some intense dude doing "Horse Latitudes"-type stuff throughout.

you know what's great on the clark anthology? "x-ray x-tasy." holy shit, what a riff.

Pere Ubu is incredibly overrated. Their first couple singles were real good.

this i agree with.

"I don't get the big Chrome canonization at all." - depends on how you look at 'em. It's all about the sheer hallucinogenic NOISE for me. I agree they don't really rate as pop songsmiths, but at 3AM when the carpet is boiling over, that's really beside the point.

I see them somewhere between the Butthole Surfers, Hawkwind and (early) Cabs, rather than as a low-fi psych-pop outfit - though they could be that too, at times.

It's all about the sheer hallucinogenic NOISE for me.

I get this, but I think disc one of the Clark anthology has everything a record like Half Machine Lip Moves has but just literally IN SPADES.

By the way, Marco, have you heard Trizo 50? If you like that Creme Soda record, I'd really recommend this! It's kind of comparable, but I think they had a greater scope. More ambitious. They were from Missouri.

http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/trizo.50.html

There's supposed to be a second volume coming out on the same label.

haha, Tim doesn't like the Buttholes either!

Double xpost (or more)

By the way, Marco, have you heard Trizo 50? If you like that Creme Soda record, I'd really recommend this! It's kind of comparable, but I think they had a greater scope. More ambitious. They were from Missouri

There's one of their songs on the "Love Peace & Poetry" comp and I like it a lot. I'll search their album, your description sounds really promising!
What I like about Creme Soda is the way they were all over the 60's musical map (folk, pop, garage) but with a sort of personal take: also the song "Numero Uno" is made out of that Stooges/VU cloth that Spacemen 3 would have used later.

And if anyone can provide any info on this recent pressing of 'Alien Soundtracks', I'd appreciate it. The cover says limited to 300 copies, no label info. The guy at the record store says that Damon Edge's family released this after taking the rights back from Touch and Go last year. It's one of those chintzy record-in-a-bag-with-color-xerox-artwork type deals, comes with a badge and a patch, sounds fine for white vinyl... but I can't for the life of me figure out why it wouldn't come with a back cover (I'm unconvinced by the clerk's opinion that it shouldn't).

haven't seen the vinyl, but they're back in print on CD as well (though HMLM & AS each get their own disc, it looks like they also get full original packaging)

I doubt I'll replace my Touch and Go CD but if they put out The Visitation I'll spring for it, that's become my favorite other Chrome album (especially if they throw on this for bonus tracks

and a re-release of Red Exposure would go down really well right now, that's the pop one

The plot thickens.
we are very proud to be the label that got these
classic albums back out into the world. they
should never have gone out of print.
but due to situations beyond our control, we will
only be selling these cd's for a very limited time.
once our current stock is gone, that will be the
end of them. so get in your order while you can.

we've been getting lots of questions from you
folks. here are some answers. people have
emailed us asking questions to the situation with
chrome. sorry, we're not talking. we've also
gotten lots of emails asking if we are doing the
other chrome albums. answer is no. and lastly,
"are we doing them on vinyl"... sadly, no. but we
will say this, people have emailed us saying that
these cd's sound better than any other issue on
cd. that is cool.

god i love chrome

yeah they are just amazing

so uh is 'meet you in the subway' the only chrome tune with a video? how comes it says 1984 when the only release of it i can find is on the comp in 79

Great, great band.

Chrome and Savage Republic are the two most unsung leviathans of American rock. Both members of that most rare category of bands that gernuinely merit the term "visionary".

admrl, which Bart station do you think those videos were shot at?

my money's on Rockridge station

Seeing BART makes me sad. =(

It looks like either Rockridge or Macarthur and then Embarcadero? I love the feeling it gives of BART being so new and strange (even though it looks pretty much the same).

the Residents used the Embarcadero / Civic Center BART walls for album packaging once in much the same alien way: http://www.residents.com/bh/forselsie.htm

WOW @ that Ultra link, Milton.

This sounds like some sucky legal bullshit to me. Glad I have that Touch & Go CD already, seems like these will go fast now.

Thanks for the tip on these, I await confirmation from Noiseville that they actually have stock.

OK, these finally tunred up yesterday. I've only listened to HMLM so far.

You know, I was of the opinion that these didn't need remastering, or that you couldn't get any more out of the existing masters, but WOW. This pressing kind of makes the T&G masters sound like they were remastered off a decent pressing of the LP or something - there are points, obviously, where they're getting as much as possible out of recordings that are WAYYY into the red anyway (You've Been Duplicated and Zero Time probably the worst offenders, I think) but Zombie Warfare, March of the Chrome Police and Abstract Nympho (to pick just three) sound INCREDIBLE.

Third From The Sun: arguably should have needed less more tinkering than the other two. Despite this, there has been some. To their detriment, perhaps, Firebomb and Future Ghost end up sounding like mid-80s Iggy. Lucky, then, that the next 4 tracks RENDER MOST OF KILLING JOKE'S CAREER UTTERLY REDUNDANT.

Really looking forward to Alien Soundtracks now.

Could you describe your impression of said tinkering in more detail, aldo? If they messed up "Firebomb" I will cry. I'd like to get the 3rd From The Sun CD but I have an original vinyl already... Got the other two new reissues on vinyl and they sure do sound nice. I'll have to do an A/B with my T&G CD.

It's not messed up as such, but it brings out the Iggy-ness more than other versions. Vocals too loud (for me), and the added separation on the drums brings out the 80s gated original production far more. It sounds better than anything on Instict, but has that same feel.

The drums, in particular, are where I think the most tinkering has taken place. They're clearer (again, in my opinion) than in previous issues, and in doing so they've played with the balance of them a lot. More cowbell/rim/sticks, less bass drum and toms. It makes it sound more dynamic, but also panders to the worst elements of the production. And as I said, the first two tracks (and maybe Shadows Of A Thousand Years) seem to have the vocals pushed slightly too high in the mix or possibly too little guitar, which is in this context arguably the same thing.

But these are minor criticisms of awesome records. Maybe I need to listen to them alongside the T&G issues as well.

re Mike Dixn: bought that Alien Soundtracks LP (w crappy 1-sided cover & badge & patch). While it's nice to have a new copy, it's a weird, half-ass package job. Retarded 2-tone vinyl is another drag, but my old Dossier press is beat to shit, So hooray.

Been listening to the Anopheles reissue of George Brigman's Jungle Rot LP. Guitar and even vocals often remind me of HCreed. Wonder if he'd heard it at the time. Unlikely, I suppose.

OTM about George Brigman! I thought the exact same when I first heard Jungle Rot. The first rrack sounds just like TV as Eyes.

And yeah, the packaging is pretty weak. (Nice badge though)

i can feel my brain dripping thnose rouhg my and my tearsa re taste like rainbows

CHROME

bst bnd nam vr

YOU'VE BEEN REPLICATED

It's You've Been Duplicated Doh!

http://www.cduniverse.com/sresult.asp?HT_SEARCH=AS&HT_SEARCH_INFO=Chrome&song=You've+Been+Duplicated

Will never get the proper luv

IIRC Damon actually rings the changes on "you've been replicated . . duplicated" and Cthulhu knows what else, then finishes off with ". . REPLACED!" Levels of distortion make it hard to tell. It's great, anyway.

Favorite Chrome lyrical moment was in an improvised jam on a live boot where he broke off in the middle of a more than usually incomprehensible rant with the aside 'I don't know why I'm telling you this'. Never failed to crack me up.

does ellison still post here? did he change his name and i missed it? cause i just wanted to say thanks for accidentally goading me into liking todd tamanend clark and the twinkeyz. and now creme soda.

thanks, dude!

yeah, same here with TTC. Found that dude through this thread. Secret Sinema, good song.

There was a nice feature on Gary Spain talking about his days in Chrome (played bass on Vistations through Half Machine) up at Foxy Digitalis but I can't find the text now, just some kind of place holder.
http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/features.php?which=63

"and now creme soda"

spread the love!

I just got myself Half Machine Lip Moves based on this thread. So thank you.

it is a whole world of awesome!

Amen! Who else is fucking with our heads like this now?

Everybody's favorite label, Cleopatra Records, is supposedly releasing a deluxe edition of the Chrome box on August 5th. Let's hope they don't screw it up.

It's Cleopatra. Ergo, not a question of hoping they don't screw it up but of hoping that the damage is minimal.

amen to that

I have the old Chrome CD box ... the annoying thing with it is that Red Exposure, Blood on the Moon, etc., are totally truncated.

I can see them fecking it up by putting all Non Creed material on disc 3...

god, i hope hope hope this is the full box set. like the lps. that used to be affordable once upon a time.

hi, I'm Hugo, CHROME fan from the first hour. I have every record from chrome (Damon and Helios),chrome by damon edge and every chrome by Helios creed , also the cd's and albums under his name, but, also all the damon edge stuff under his name. My amphetaminesh feeling was(around 1979) that this was the first band that did something you can't describe, even now, still , there are no words for it. from super psychedelic industrial till rock buzz over backwards forward deep
emotional experimental junk Never done before, still not done. We were so impressed that, afer they split up, we still found, HERE iN BELGIUM all,the Chrome" stuff (by damon). Why nobody listens to 'the Lyon Concert' By damon and his (french, swiss?) band. Absolutely top.
If you were there, you would know that damon was going down with the next records: clean sound, but only sometimes nice. No Chrome. Then he died, Helios took over and was closer to the chrome sound. Also during the last 10 years of damons life. I have all the cd's from HC (except the ambient , they are terrible) So, In total I have 15 albums and 20 cd's or something, looking for more. there is no Chrome. HC still goes great, but Damon is gone , and together the magic was wonderfull. Also, most albums weren't Fantastic, but if you make compilations, you can fill 10 cd's. What I don't like is that the re-releases of some albums (alien soundtracks; the best) are manipulated so ,... I have tapes of the originals , or records, they have more tracks than the cd's. The chroncles 1 and 2 Are same than raining milk or alien soundtracks, Forgive me if I mix up a few things. and,... the cd's are again different. And I have the Maxi singles too. I am still in love with the most excitng junk , started end 70ties without HC (visitation) hippie kind of evolution, And till 83 With him HC, I, can be wrong about dates, but who cares when you live from 78 tll 2008 with that deep emotion, love , space , junk, angryness, sadness, and , of course excitement. and the chaos. yeah!!
I want to bring Helios to Belgium, I organise gigs and festivals. All Psy: from goa trance to industrial.I also like JJ cale, Zappa or Throbbing Hawkwistle, tribal , or anything that makes me feel good . James brown. thanx Hugo Peeters +32 15 211 523 BELGIUM BORN '62 and full on, dancer and music desperado. And listen to Juno Reactor different same same. less chaos, more bpm. Good night c u in the subway

Throbbing Hawkwistle!

Gristlewind?

tantric testicles are great too!

I am still in love with the most excitng junk.

hi Hugo

C U In The Subway!

I am wearing a Chrome t-shirt right now, i just realized.

"Why nobody listens to 'the Lyon Concert' By damon and his (french, swiss?) band. Absolutely top."

If that's the case, then I be nobody, and, yes, absolutely tip top number one, pass the bong, sah!

did you put it in real chrome, you'll look very shiny at daytime. hard to move yer upper body. They should make a law against it when it is sunny. The metal is too reflecting. only good to wear at te march of the chrome police, perfect for the zombie warfare, stay left at the 3rd from the sun (use a compass),. password is abstract bimbo, and wear sunglasses, cause the future looks good, except for the fire bombs. Or choose for isolation, with the alliance of the hearts , and don't move like that, when you meet pygmees in zee subway, by the Zooo. peace chromaniacs. I want also a chrome t shirt , but the original. With the full alien monster, not the half, wich Helios used. Like the dvd, where I saw only helios, but not Damon. Don't get me wrong,I was on the phone with Helios, but Chrome were two. We are all one. Long live Helios Creed, and respect for the dodgy but genius Demon edge. Hallelujah. Where was that bong? Listen to kong. quite same same but different. ciao keep it kiss and cozy. Hugo Belgium. Need something chromatic. I share everything for free. Only for real real few chromosomes. Not for downloading business people. And i'm lazy. there's a motor in my head. Disconnected. for a thousand years. x

thanx Hugo Peeters +32 15 211 523

what happens if you call this #

everything goes white and you wake up in a subway station in thailand

?

Chrome/Helios Creed "Dual Forces" Tour

We've got a national tour in the works. Helios shall be joined by Aleph on drums, Lux on bass, and Jerry Page on keyboards/second guitar/metal objects.

2008-09-17 San Francisco, CA Hemlock Tavern
2008-09-18 Ashland, OR Stillwater
2008-09-19 Portland, OR East End Pub
2008-09-20 Seattle, WA The Funhouse
2008-09-23 Denver, CO 3 Kings Tavern
2008-09-24 Lincoln, NE Knickerbockers
2008-09-25 Kansas City, MO Record Bar
2008-09-26 St. Paul, MN Turf Club
2008-09-27 Chicago, IL Cobra Lounge
2008-09-28 Pontiac, MI Pike Room
2008-09-29 Cleveland, OH Beachland
2008-10-01 Boston, MA Church
2008-10-02 New York, NY The Annex
2008-10-03 Baltimore, MD Talking Head
2008-10-04 Charleston, WV Empty Glass
2008-10-05 Charlotte, NC The Milestone
2008-10-06 Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn
2008-10-07 Birmingham, AL The Nick
2008-10-09 Houston, TX Rudyards
2008-10-10 Dallas, TX Prophet Bar
2008-10-15 Los Angeles, CA Knitting Factory

I think I saw an ad for this and thought it was a typo for Chromeo!

if only u could tour the country by subway train

will go to that

Everybody's favorite label, Cleopatra Records, is supposedly releasing a deluxe edition of the Chrome box on August 5th. Let's hope they don't screw it up.

-- brg30, Saturday, July 19, 2008 8:24 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

It's Cleopatra. Ergo, not a question of hoping they don't screw it up but of hoping that the damage is minimal.

-- Ned Raggett, Saturday, July 19, 2008 8:39 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

amen to that

-- sleeve, Saturday, July 19, 2008 8:49 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

new box is the same truncated bullshit as the old box, no difference in track listing.

Fuck you, Cleopatra.

Hahaha, oh my lack of surprise.

so why is it deluxe edition

b/c it has a badge and a patch! oh the joy!!!

Someone told you I mentioned Chrome in chatz tonight, didn't they, Am0n?

the chrome cover of "here come the warm jets" rules

please tell me more, never heard of it.

it's mostly pretty faithful to the original, but a little harder and noisier. the ending is awesome -- it slows down, abruptly speeds up, and fades out.

Man, I didn't know about this! What record is it on? (Or maybe I did know about it and forgot...)

Never heard of this, need to hear it.

Hope the tour makes it to Europe.

Someone told you I mentioned Chrome in chatz tonight, didn't they, Am0n?

-- Bimble, Friday, August 29, 2008 10:37 PM

hwaht

Reissued Chrome box is now MINE ALL MINE and on its way. Despite the shortcomings of the set, I reckon it'll be worth having it on a relatively accessible format - covers a lot of stuff which I only ever had on cassettes which are now decaying in the attic. Be great to renew my acquaintance with the Blood On The Moon & Chronicles material - I remember Perfumed Metal as having an absolutely monstrous main riff. Presumably Creed and widow Edge get a percentage of the proceeds too.

do cleopatra actually pay people? that'd be one thing in their favor.

Don't know one way or the other, but they're a fairly high profile operation and have been around for a while, so I'd expect that they're covering their legal obligations at the very least. Don't know what the score is with the Chrome rights and royalties, though. Acrimonious breakups usually make things messy,

I now have my DELUXE EDITION 500 Chrome Box: Matt black cardboard gift box, stickered front and back, three CDR flimsy CDR-style cases with one-sheet folded over liners; cover art made from photoshop superimpositions of the LP covers AND . . a free black and white sticker!

The music still sounds great, though.

I will bring you copies of the Noiseville remasters next time I see you.

what else is on that cleopatra box besides alien soundtracks and half machine lip moves?

o wait no "nova feedback" no sale

I love every track on The Visitation / AS / HMLP / Red Exposure -- the box is good as it's the only place you can get the 'Read Only Memory' ep, their tracks from the 'Subterranean Modern' comp, a few singles & b-sides & live excerpts... and it's got all I need from the later albums

Xpost Aldo - cheers mate! Got the Noiseville "3rd . ." which is mighty fine.

As for the box, ST 37 is the most baffling omission for me.

I have an original Chrome Box on vinyl, straight from Subterranean. At best, I'd say I might have listened to the Chronicles, 1 & 2 a couple times. They're basically one long whoosh of space jam with little variation. In the style of Third from the Sun but monotonous and not nearly as good.

No Humans Allowed is OK as noise and pastiche. Decades ago I thought "I Am the Jaw" was neat, a real room clearer. I was much younger, though.

Blood on the Moon -- the title track and "Insect Human" are good.

Which leaves the two unequivocal stars of the show: Alien Soundtracks and Half Machine Lip Moves.

However, for the best Chrome experience I rely on those two and Third from the Sun. Together, they pack the most wallop per minute and Noiseville furnishes them.

That said, The Chrome Box on Cleopatra is a good price and a reasonable shuffle of Chrome's best period. For example, it includes the strongest material from Third from the Sun -- an album not included in the old box. At this point I would part with my original. But it always included LPs which were the equivalent of filler, rare filler, granted. That was the nature of the Chrome beast.

Had Red Exposure and listened to it a lot when I was into the more straight bleak noise side of Chrome. Can't say I miss it. Apparently Beggars Banguet didn't either.

well Gorge, if you ever want to sell me your Chrome LP box I promise it will remain in good hands and be played on the radio at regular intervals.

I am a pretty big fan of the Chronicles, something about the stretched-out format really works for me. This is my biggest disappointment with the CD box, in that it drastically edits these tracks which IMO are better served by long buildups.

It and a short interview were the basis for a Chrome cover story for an old fanzine I did way back in -- hmmm -- '82, I guess. I no longer have the 'zine but the box has stayed with me all these years. It was really ambitious for its time. A six-record vinyl box set for Chrome in 1982 or so! The first Chrome vinyl I saw that actually made it into a chain store -- the old Listening Booth in my neck of the woods -- was Third from the Sun. Everything else I either got through mail order or at a funky place in State College, PA, which I don't even remember the name of.

This is undoubtedly the creepiest thing I've ever posted to the internet, but, Gorge . . any chance you could post some pics of that original boxset?

I'll make some scans later today. There's not much to see. Chrome and Subterranean definitely took the stark and cryptic approach. I guess the idea was if you bought it, you already knew all you had to.

first time I heard of chrome was when a sound choice reviewer compared my band to them in '87. went on the hunt for chrome stuff and could never find any. then touch and go reissued alien soundtracks in '90 and I discovered that the comparison was quantitatively sound but qualitatively invalid. we were no chrome!

uh what was your band?

totally obscure & forgotten

With that name, I'm not surprised.

"TOAF, to use their noted acronym..."

Is that how your allmusic entry for them starts?

A reissue of the Lyon concert boot would be nice at this point.

I haven't heard Chrome yet. Almost bought the original Chrome Box (CD version) the other day, but I held off briefly and it was gone the next day. Wish I'd picked it up now!

So the Chrome Box is only £10 + shipping on Amazon marketplace now - if I already have the T&G Alien Soundtracks/Half Machine CD and Red Exposure on vinyl, would I be better off buying the Chrome Box or just get Blood On The Moon separately? What are the bonus tracks like? Anything essential from singles/comp tracks or whatever that's not on the individual albums? Anyone care to break down exactly what's on the box and what's missing from the box?

Don't have time to break it down, but you also get most of 'Third from the Sun', singles, compilation tracks and bits of Chronicles. So, better to have a complete set of original vinyls of course, but for a tenner, I'm happy.

I broke down and picked one up. yeah it's worth it. I've been planning to set down and figure out what is and isn't on there from the albs, but as milton pointed out above the ep/singles/odds & ends are not filler. I'm thinking that between this and the noiseville alien soundtracks I'm pretty well set. if it's true that cleopatra only pressed 500 then you should probably hop on it.

also, why didn't anybody tell me how awesome red exposure is?

who besides me thinks we need a ts: alien soundtracks vs. half machine lip moves thread

Go for it.

Also:

also, why didn't anybody tell me how awesome red exposure is?

I did! Well, over here.

Chrome box is:

missing 4 Alien Soundtracks tracks

missing "Critical Mass from HMLM

missing "Room 101" and "Night Of The Earth" from Red Exposure

all 3 tracks from Subterranean Modern comp LP!!!

excerpt from "Read Only Memory", also has "The Manifestation Of The Idea" from that same EP

"information" 7" B-side

In A Dream/Dangerzone 12"

missing "The Strangers" from Blood On The Moon

1 non-LP "Instrumental"

has all of "Third From The Sun" except it has the 7" single version of "Firebomb", approx. 1 minute shorter.

then it has drastically edited versions of all the Chronicles tracks.

But I like The Strangers :(

I guess it is worth getting for the singles tracks and Third From The Sun then, esp for £10.

red exposure sounds like a joy division record made by maximalists

it was only recently that I realized the cover of 3rd from the sun is not a drawing of some weird alien, but is a lion door knocker with cut out eyes pasted over it.

http://www.staticwhitesound.com/chrome/discography/300x300/3rdFromSun_Siren.JPG

so has anybody been to one of those helios creed's chrome shows yet? tour's coming to boston next week.

I saw it a couple of years ago.
I found it kind of lacking. The band is pretty annoying, especially the drums. They used some graphic projections that may have been impressive to someone who's never seen a computer before. Helios Creed was hella stoned, though, which was a nice effort. I'm not big on reunion shows, however loosely that term can be applied to the Helios Creed plays Chrome thing.
It's just impossible to reproduce what I love about those Chrome records on stage, I think.

They never really were a live act, though the Lyon Concert boot is pretty good IIRC. Saw Helios solo live back in the 90's, and he was great. I'd basically drop whatever I was doing and go see them anywhere I could afford to get to.

i'm probably going this friday

I opened for them twice in '98 or so. They were not good then. I'm sure they are no better now. Some things are best in your imagination. Or memory. Or whatever.

from '07

the projections are funny. they look like that visualizer thing that itunes has

http://cgi.ebay.com/CHROME-Alien-Soundtracks-cassette-unreleased-tracks_W0QQitemZ350102483040QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item350102483040&_trkparms=39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A1|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

OW! If Helios has any more of this stuff in a box under his bed, I want to hear it

wonder if these tracks will come out

I'm excited that there is unreleased material from this period, but I don't know if there's enough interest for a proper release, and given the complex history of the band, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot has been lost. I'd be curious to know if Helios is aware of this auction, and if he has anything to say about it.

milton linked to another tape at some point that had longer versions of some AS tracks, wonder if these are the same.

There are 25 second samples on the auction listing, sound like totally new songs. Of course, they could just be different intros. Never could tell where Chrome were going to take things.

looks like it could be the same, compare the order of the new songs & older songs on the cassette with this:

http://www.staticwhitesound.com/chrome/discography/Ultra_Soundtrack.htm

I want to hear

"Unfortunately, this copy (the only one known to exist) was re-recorded over the first 5 minutes with some folk music, destroying most of the first 2 tracks."

Hippy bastards! Still, sounds like that cassette could be a complete version of this,

The staticwhitesound discography is terrific. I have an ancient cassette of the Chromasome Damage bootleg - nice to have David Tibet's confirmation that the intro and outro are old Crowley recordings.

As for the Ultra Soundtrack tape, has anyone ever thought to ask the Mitchell brothers what the story is?

the second one died in 2007, so we can't ask them.

perhaps there's an unreleased interview somewhere...

milton linked to another tape at some point that had longer versions of some AS tracks, wonder if these are the same.

okay, I kinda need to hear this

here are those alien soundtracks demo mp3s from the ebay auction zipped up for yr delectation in case they never see the light of day again

http://www.sendspace.com/file/abu6pc

that tape went for cheap, only $810, wondered if they threw in free shipping

so I tried to sort out where the various cleopatra box set tracks originated, and here's what I came up with. cleopatra could've saved me the trouble by putting this info in the set or putting it on their website. bastards.

this is not definitive as I don't have the original vinyl to compare, but by checking a couple different sources (staticwhitesound, discogs, rateyourmusic) and looking at track times I think this is mostly correct.

after going through this exercise I find it's hard to level a claim that the chronicles tracks have been unfairly truncated by cleopatra, since chrome itself issued the chronicles tracks on several releases with varying lengths and it appears like cleopatra picked from already existing versions.

example: "wings born into the night"
chronicles I - 16:00
raining milk - 6:40
chronicles vol I & II - 15:42
cleopatra chrome box - 6:45 (I'm assuming this is the raining milk version)

the biggest crime of the set is dropping half of alien soundtracks, losing classic tracks like "nova feedback" and "st37". but you do get a bunch of tracks not readily found elsewhere. and a pin. and a sticker.

Disc 1
1. Chromosome Damage (Alien Soundtracks LP)
2. The Monitors (Alien Soundtracks LP)
3. Pygmies In Zee Park (Alien Soundtracks LP)
4. Slip It To The Android (Alien Soundtracks LP)
5. Pharaoh Chromium (Alien Soundtracks LP)
6. Magnetic Dwarf Reptile (Alien Soundtracks LP)
7. TV As Eyes (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
8. Zombie Warfare (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
9. March Of The Chrome Police (A Cold Clammy Bombing) (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
10. You've Been Duplicated (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
11. Mondo Anthem (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
12. Half Machine Lip Moves (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
13. Abstract Nympho (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
14. Turned Around (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
15. Zero Time (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
16. Creature Eternal (Half Machine Lip Moves LP)
17. Anti-Fade (Subterranean Modern comp)
18. I Left My Heart In San Francisco (Subterranean Modern comp)
19. Meet You In The Subway (Subterranean Modern comp)
20. Excerpt From Read Only Memory (Read Only Memory 12")
21. Informations (New Age 7" b-side)

Disc 2
1. New Age (Red Exposure LP)
2. Eyes On Mars (Red Exposure LP)
3. Jonestown (Red Exposure LP)
4. Animal (Red Exposure LP)
5. Static Gravity (Red Exposure LP)
6. Eyes In The Center (Red Exposure LP)
7. Electric Chair (Red Exposure LP)
8. Isolation (Red Exposure LP)
9. In A Dream (Inworlds 12")
10. Danger Zone (Inworlds 12")
11. The Need (Blood on the Moon LP)
12. Perfumed Metal (Blood on the Moon LP)
13. Insect Human (Blood on the Moon LP)
14. Brain Scan (Blood on the Moon LP)
15. Instrumental (Non-LP Track) (Chromosome Damage - live in Bologna LP)
16. Out Of Reach (Chromosome Damage - live in Bologna LP)
17. Blood On The Moon (Chromosome Damage - live in Bologna LP)
18. Innervacume (Chromosome Damage - live in Bologna LP)
19. Planet Strike (Chromosome Damage - live in Bologna LP)

Disc 3
1. The Manifestation (Of The Idea) (No Humans Allowed LP)
2. Firebomb (Firebomb 7")
3. Shadows Of A Thousand Years (Firebomb 7")
4. Future Ghosts (3rd from the Sun LP)
5. Armageddon (3rd from the Sun LP)
6. Heartbeat (3rd from the Sun LP)
7. Off The Line (3rd from the Sun LP)
8. 3rd From The Sun (3rd from the Sun LP)
9. Anorexic Sacrifice (Anorexic Sacrifice 7")
10. Beacons To The Eye (Anorexic Sacrifice 7")
11. Open Up (Locust Door) (Chronicles I)
12. Gehenna To Canaan (Chronicles II)
13. Wings Born In The Night (Raining Milk)
14. Tribes (Ultra) (Raining Milk)
15. Gehenna Lion (Raining Milk)

Edward, thanks for the hard work. And, yeah, this information should have come with the box.

That would have been too easy.

conversely, here is what's missing from the cleopatra box set:

Alien Soundtracks
03 All Data Lost
04 SS Cygni
05 Nova Feedback
09 ST 37

Half Machine Lip Moves
11 Critical Mass

Read Only Memory (there is an 8 minute excerpt)
A1. You Can’t See Them - They Can’t Touch You
A2. Inacontact
A3. Read Only Memory
B1. In Front of the Crowd
B2. I am the Jaw

New Age 7"
A1. New Age

Red Exposure
02 Room 101
09 Nights Of The Earth

Blood on the Moon
02 Inner Vacume
04 Planet Strike
05 The Strangers
07 Out of Reach
09 Blood on the Moon

Chromosome Damage (Live in Bologna)
A1. [ La Gitana - Aleister Crowley * ]
A2. Perfumed Metal
A4. Insect Human (We are Connected)
B1. Sun Control
B4. Armageddon
B6. [ The Pentagram - Aleister Crowley * ]

No Humans Allowed
(same Read Only Memory tracks)
B1. You Can’t See Them- They Can’t Touch You
B2. Inacontact
B3. Read Only Memory
B4. In Front Of the Crowd
B5. I am the Jaw

3rd from the Sun
01 Fire Bomb
07 Shadows of a Thousand Years

(everything below is all chronicles material, renamed, repackaged, etc.)

Chronicles I
A1. Anorexic Sacrifice
A2. Tribes
B1. Wings Born in the Night

Chronicles II
A1. Beacons to the Eye
B1. Gehenna Lion (Gehenna to Cannaan)

Raining Milk
A3. Gehenna to Canaan
A4. Légendes des Fantomes Futures
B1. Beacons to The Eye
B2. Raining Milk
B3. Anorexic Sacrifice

Chronicles Vol 1 & 2
01 The Chronicles of the Sacrifice
02 The Chronicles of the Tribes
03 The Chronicles of the Open Door
04 The Chronicles of Born in the Night
05 The Chronicles of the Beacons
06 The Chronicles of Gehenna

at one time I had copies of the unedited tapes from their 1981 shows in bologna and SF. I should dig those out.

don't get too excited. the sound was pretty dodgy on them.

but hey, it's chrome.

If you've got dodgy copies, there are probably pristine masters out there somewhere. And, yes, I'd be excited to hear them regardless.

IIRC the sound wasn't dodgy because they were bad copies or nth generation, but because they were '81 amateur audience tapes of a noisy underground band. but they can't sound much worse than the live tracks on the cleopatra box set, which were mastered from a vinyl boot...

Should fit in really nicely between my Rallizes Denudes discs and the Black Metal collection, then!

Helios Creed is playing Friday night & i am so there.I've seen him multiple times including on the Nic Turner's Hawkwind tour.I kinda like the live Chrome stuff he plays that's on the second disc of some throwaway Cleopatra greatest hits.I used to have the original Chrome vinyl box but sold it years ago.Wish i hadn't.

When the hell is somebody gonna re-release The Visitation??

Yeah, this is the real question.
I really would like to put my dirty little hands on it.

Really not that great at all, IIRC, though I appreciate you've got to hear it once.

A friend of mine who played with Helios in Seattle just came back to Italy and gave me this Chrome dvd as a gift: it includes their vintage videos, including some hilarious clip with a raincoated Damon Edge proudly wielding a keytar. Great stuff!

looks like cleopatra is reissuing red exposure next month.

wish noiseville could've swung it.

yesssss

I know this is inconceivable, but hi dere Cleopatra plz include Read Only Memory as bonus trax.

at one time I had copies of the unedited tapes from their 1981 shows in bologna and SF.

A 1981 SF show from Mabuhay Gardens just popped up on D!me@d0zen -- sounds pretty good so far.

Yeah, saw that as well!

that sf show is the same one I leonardo'd last week... synchronicity or related phenomenon?

maybe I should throw the '81 italy show up on DAD

Mix CD Kings.

so Red Exposure is out, there is (was?) a ltd vinyl edition as well.

anybody heard this? I'd be interested in hearing how it sounds compared to the orig Siren/Beggar's Banquet vinyl.

Would love Red Exposure vinyl

yes but it is on CLEOPATRA who are notorious for doing shoddy jobs on releases, that's why I would like input from someone who has heard the new version...

I no. But the others sound pretty okay. Packaging is way worse than the pressing (surprisingly).

hmm I thought the others were on Noiseville? with the buttons and patches? I could be wrong. Those do sound great.

The vinyls are mysterious. Matrix #s look like they're from teh Siren pressings. Noiseville did the CDs, dunno who did the wax. Thought it was Cleo.

ahhh, thanks. that IS weird.

I saw the Cleopatra CDs of 'Red Exposure' & 'Retro Transmission' at Amoeba. Back covers on both looked so low effort, same cheap font just containing the titles, and the spines of both of them read 'Chrome - Retro Transmission' -- mr. Illustrator guy forgot to change the spine title before sending it off to the factory. Out of fear for how bad the rest of it would be, I ended up springing for that Harmonia Deluxe CD reissue on Lilith, with extra pictures / Tietchens liners / etc

Too bad Cleopatra did this one, 'Red Exposure' is their most accessible / catchiest (but still completely fucked) album, I hope the reissue occasions reviews at least

wait waht is Retro Transmission?

I'll still buy it if someone reps for the mastering

xpost 2002 Creed reformation album (had to google to find that out myself, the packaging says nothing) - never heard it, amazon reviewers say it's fair

ah, ok, thanks but I will probably pass. OTM about mastering being the key issue here.

red exposure sounds fine on cd. yeah, it looks like shit, but it sounds good to me - granted i haven't heard the original in a long time.

but it doesn't sounds like it comes off of a cassette or anything.

"Blood on the moon" is out (with sort of bonus tracks too).

The reissues sound okay.
As pointed out above, in pure Cleopatra style there are ridicolous mistakes here and there, but at least the albums are available.

am in the mood for chrome ...at the office. how long before management 'have a word' about the racket, do you think??

Listening to Half Machine Lip Moves tonight.

Also, many xposts & time gone by now, so here's the Eno cover "Here Come The Warm Jets" which is great.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SC55VD6U

Hey Chrome experts. I want to buy a copy of Half Machine Lip Moves since I love this album and I only have a CD-R some friend gave to me. But I was wondering what format and edition is the best purchase in terms of audio quality and presentation, the Noiseville CD or the Cleoplatra LP?

Hope that you can help me.

The two-fer with Half Machine Lip Moves + Alien Soundtracks released on Touch N Go has always done the trick for me...

The Noiseville reprints of Chrome are fine. I had a Cleopatra best of -- as well as the 'remake' of the Chrome box. Both were similarly fine. Six of one/half dozen of the other, depends on taste at the moment.

can't go wrong with the noiseville ones, at least they cared

Heads up:
just soze ye nose:
the Lilith records "Blood on the Moon" LP w/complementary CD version reissue is a shambles.
The packaging is sweet but when we get to what really matters it's cobbled together from (mostly)live versions of the BOTM tracks (from the "Live in Bologna" LP, I'm guessing) - the whole thing is presented as a verbatim reissue and isn't - which I'm guessing is why I was able to pick it up cheap - could be for some other entirely disconnected reason, though.
The live tracks just do not have that corkscrewing mania we need from chrome.
Lilith is a turd.

yeah they suck, fuck them and their overpriced bootlegs.

Wow, that's fucked up. Good to know.

Chrome with Helios Creed = Classic.
Damon Edge solo + non-Creed Chrome = Dud.

Classic understates how much I love Chrome, incidentally. Amazing band, one of my favorites.

Crome Box in black of night, by cathode ray light

Spent last night listening to a bunch of Chrome stuff cuz it'd been while. Still love Alien Soundtracks and most of Half Machine Lip Moves, but I'm on the fence about the rest. As a result, I was quite surprised to see the AMG ratings, which treat their albums with Helios Creed (even the semi-shitty odds 'n' sods comps) as more or less equivalent in quality.

Tastes differ and all, but it's hard not see a substantial drop in inspiration and invention from those first two albums with Creed to Red Medicine, which is texturally interesting but constrained and repetitive in comparison to the wild-ass space monster tape-splicing shit that made their reputation. The drop from there to Blood On the Moon is still more obviously catastrophic. It sounds like the work of the band that cut Red Medicine, but shorn of their experimental inclinations and given to a rather hokey theatricality. They keep recycling the same limp riffs and rhythms as though they were pop songs, and they just aren't. It's got moments, especially if you're into the sound, but they're occasional at at best and tend to drag on way too long.

The most offensive thing, to me, is that 3rd From the Sun, the band's sixth album (fifth with Creed), is held a notch above anything else they did. I'll happily grant that it's better than Blood On the Moon, but not by a massive margin, and I honestly can't understand why anyone would single it out as their finest hour, ranking it above even Alien Soundtracks. Shit is bananas.

Scored Correctly:

The Visitation (1976) - ★★½
Alien Soundtracks (1978) - ★★★★★
Half-Machine Lip Moves (1979) - ★★★★
Red Exposure (1980) - ★★½
Blood On the Moon (1981) - ★★
3rd From the Sun (1982) - ★★★

Okay, hold up. I'm being way too hard on Blood On the Moon. It's at least energetic, and the problem isn't that the riffs are "limp" (they're pretty great, actually), but that they're similar, and the tempos are similar, and there isn't really anything to the songs but the riffs. As a result, it gets tiresome fast. Taken in isolation, most of its tracks sound pretty damn good. 3rd From the Sun, otoh, sounds like a band running out of gas and not really caring.

So I guess I didn't score them "correctly" after all. Probably should have snatched a star back from 3rd From the Sun and given it to Blood On the Moon.

Anyway, it's weird how those three late albums each seem to isolate an aspect of the early Edge/Creed sound, reducing it to a recognizable style. Red Exposure concentrates on dystopian sci-fi soundscapes, Blood On the Moon pushes protopunk riff slinging, and 3rd From the Sun groans out the dirgey spacerock. Maybe what I miss is the unpredictable, irreducible manner in which Alien Soundtracks and Half Machine Lip Moves combine all those things.

The Visitation is weird. I'm new to it, having listened for the first time only last night, so I'm not yet sure what to think. It sounds like an embryonic hybrid of the harsh, blazed, sci-fi weirdness of Alien Soundtracks and some faceless West Coast psych band of the era. Which I suppose it is, but I think I like it. It's sort of the anti-Blood On the Moon, all loose, meandering and organic. Drags in the middle, but the opening and closing acts are pretty entertaining.

It was my first Chrome record, found an original with a lyric insert.
I'll always love it, but it is a different beast.

wow, shit, i've never even seen a copy

I like The Visitation. Production not fully crazed yet, but nowhere near normal, and some good songs. Sounds like a really bent early 70's southern / country hard rock band, way closer to James Gang than Hawkwind.

Read Only Memory is also up there with the best, but I don't know anyone who doesn't put AS/HMLM at the top, but I think Red Exposure has moments, they were obviously intentionally going for something more straightforward and better produced, which I always thought they completely nailed with their two pop songs for the Subterranean Modern compilation; clean but weird.

My offhanded what-do-I-know guess is that when they moved to (slightly) higher fidelity recording on the later records, they lost their workflow which allowed them to splice the flow of the album together out of fragments. AS/HMLM sound like they were painstakingly edited together & compositionally mastered at home on really cheap equipment; the later records ones have more low end, and sound professionally mastered in the studio, on the clock, but those 4-7 minute songs lack all those bizarre left-turn edits & details. But even reading your post slagging them off makes me want to go back and check them out again, there are moments.

As a result, I was quite surprised to see the AMG ratings

The reviewer might or might not have had final say on some of those ratings, I believe.

i dig the later edge/creed stuff, but I"m a sucker for their goofy psychedelic sci-fi doomsday cult sound. not as creative as alien soundtracks, etc., but it's an aesthetic not many have mastered ... or gone near ... or really exists outside of chrome. so it's like a nice little treat once in a while.

they were obviously intentionally going for something more straightforward and better produced, which I always thought they completely nailed with their two pop songs for the Subterranean Modern compilation; clean but weird.

yeah, otm, those two are great. so are both songs on the inworlds 12" ("danger zone" and "in a dream") and stray tracks off the last three albums: "the need", "insect human", "eyes on mars" and "firebomb", among others. would love to hear a good remaster of 3rd From the Sun, which though it's relatively well recorded, really gets lost in the murk.

lol, just opened all the 3rd from the sun tracks in audacity, dropped the volume, boosted the midrange (esp towards the top), and then compressed them a bit for uniformity. sounds a lot sharper.

LFW. i guess i want chrome to hurt my ears.

i listened to the visitation again this afternoon, and i think i'm starting to fall in love. was way premature in scoring it so low. might like it as much as half machine, but will have to wait and see.

tbh, i prefer the band when the structures they're operating w/in are a little less rigid than they got circa blood on the moon. i understand that they were probably trying to write "real songs", stuff they could play live, wanting to move beyond pasting together lofi jam snippets. they were also clearly borrowing from the formal rigidity of then ascendant new wave, downplaying the more open-ended 70s sounds they started out with. funny thing is, though, that they never sounded more perfectly and presciently NEW than on their more messily digressive early releases. they sound like band of ranxerox on alien soundtracks and half machine, like this violent, malfunctioning machine leaking sparks, noise and pornography. relative to that kind of insanity, they can't help but come across a little fuddy-duddy in wavo sex-vampire drag.

anyway, i do dig quite a few late period tracks. in addition to the stuff i mentioned earlier, i really love "perfumed metal" and "armageddon".

those are the two tunes that immediately came to mind when I read through your earlier panning of those recs. I think it's all solid, really best to think of them as three different bands - Visitation, the 78-79 period, and the later stuff until Creed left. sure the 78-79 stuff is the visionary breakthrough, but Third From The Sun and the Chronicles albums tower above most other music from that era - and really, is there anything from that time period that even sounds like "Shadows OF 1000 Years"? It only sounds lacking when you compare it to the peak.

and really, is there anything from that time period that even sounds like "Shadows OF 1000 Years"? It only sounds lacking when you compare it to the peak.

― sleeve, Friday, August 3, 2012 10:43 PM (Yesterday)

had to think about this for a minute, cuz it isn't one of my go-to favorites. "shadows" really does exemplify the weirdest aspects of the late edge/creed sound. so draggy and fucked up, seemingly from another planet, but dealing pretty straightforwardly with everyday life shit. you know, if you're a down and out borderline drug casualty enduring visions. kind of like PK dick in that regard. love the way the deliberately flat and "dumb" lead vocals contrast with the star trek style backing vox on the chorus.

your point echoes what spectrum said earlier ("I'm a sucker for their goofy psychedelic sci-fi doomsday cult sound. not as creative as alien soundtracks, etc., but it's an aesthetic not many have mastered ... or gone near ... or really exists outside of chrome. so it's like a nice little treat once in a while."), which i can't deny. they've really got the zoned, sepulchral, interplanetary drug weirdo thing nailed down tight.

it's not that i don't like the later edge/creed stuff, which i suggested by rating it so harshly, but that i move from "holy shit, i love this band/album!" to "holy shit i love this song (but not that one so much)." which isn't so terrible, really. i'm more about songs than albums anyway. i'm just as hard on my other big 70s/80s favorites: blue oyster cult, ELO, devo and talking heads.

The reviewer might or might not have had final say on some of those ratings, I believe.

yeah, i'm sorry if that came across dickish. the reviews themselves are great. it's only the ratings themselves that mystify me.

have been working on a chrome playlist, hopefully something that would fit on 2 CDs, as a primer for friends. had it working it pretty well, but then felt i had to include a few more late period edge/creed tracks and threw the balance off. now part 2 runs 90 minutes instead of 77. ah, well...

Part 1 - The Visitiation, Alien Soundtracks and Half Machine Lip Moves:

How Many Years Too Soon
Raider
Return to Zanzibar
Sun Control
My Time to Live
Memory Cords Over the Bay
Chromosome Damage
The Monitors
All Data Lost
SS Cygni
Nova Feedback
Pygmies in Zee Park
Slip It to the Android
Pharoah Chromium
ST 37
TV as Eyes
Zombie Warfare (Can't Let You Down)
March of the Chrome Police (a Cold Clamey Bombing)
You've Been Duplicated
Abstract Nympho

Part 2 - Red Exposure, Blood On the Moon, 3rd From the Sun, etc.:

Anti-Fade
Meet You In The Subway
Eyes On Mars
Eyes In The Center
Isolation
Perfumed Metal
Out of Reach
Blood On the Moon
Danger Zone
In A Dream
Beacons To The Eye [single version]
Anorexic Sacrifice
Open Up (Locust Door)
Fire Bomb
Armageddon
Off The Line
Shadows of a Thousand Years
Wings Born In the Night [edit]
Gehenna Lion [edit]

skip the struck tracks, and it works just fine.

Really enjoying the posts here and have been listening to the albums this weekend.

i understand that they were probably trying to write "real songs", stuff they could play live

Chrome played a total of two shows.

"Apparently, Damon and Helios slowly became estranged over the issue of touring. Helios wanted to go out and do live shows while Damon did not."

Chrome did not like H at first since he showed up to the audition dressed in some kind of pirate outfit. 

since i'd spent so much time revisiting chrome, i decided to go back and catch up with helios creed. not everything, as he's put out a ton of stuff over the past quarter century, but at least through the mid 90s. basically his subterranean and amrep albums, most of which i heard at the time of their release, along with a few associated stray tracks.

sadly, it turns out i don't like creed much as a solo artist. he's obviously a gifted guitar player with some strange ideas, but his compositional palette is extremely limited. he's more a jammer than a songwriter. as a result, the musical character of his output is strongly dependent on band chemistry and editorial oversight. when he's working with people who simply follow his lead, he invariably falls into a plodding, overextended, space-noise rut. since he changes bands every year or two (sometimes for every recording session), the quality of his solo work is terribly inconsistent.

1990's boxing the clown is the only helios creed solo album i really love. for one thing, it's concise. many of the songs run only two or three minutes, while most of his other releases are larded with bland riffs stretched out to epic lengths. what's more, the riffs here are genuinely catchy, you get a memorable chorus every once in a while, and the production is fantastic. it's heavy and cavernous but not at all muffled, with clear instrumental separation and lots of detail. it's also the best band creed's ever had, a power trio featuring super-genius ex-scratch acid drummer rey washam and bassist mark duran, who'd been working on and off with creed for at least five years. washam all but steals the show. his drumming is brilliant, frequently the "lead" instrument, and since he co-produced the album (with creed and jonathan burnside), it's tempting to give him at least some credit for its remarkable sound and refreshing brevity. one of the best least-remembered noise rock albums of the era.

beyond that, while there are a handful of songs i enjoy scattered among creed's many solo releases, i haven't yet found any other albums i enjoy all the way through. "the warming" is a decent single from '91. the amrep albums that followed boxing the clown, lactating purple and kiss the brain, are often fondly mentioned by fans, and the latter does feature some kickass (and surprisingly suitable) slap bass from paul kirk, but i only like odd moments here and there. for instance, i love "flying through the either", an uncharacteristically lovely pillow of bright guitars and cloudy synths that shows up early on lactating purple. kiss the brain is a better album, overall, but the only real keepers, afaic, are "mountain mystery", a wierd tale of alien visitation in the sticks (driven by crazy slap bass), and "legs", a hilariously depraved take on the theme made famous by ZZ top ("smell the leather, taste the whip, feel your master start to drip").

the less said about the version of chrome he cobbled together in the late 90s, after the passing of damon edge, the better.

X-Rated Fairytales is a great Helios solo album, I dunno I have only listened to a handful of Creed's solo albums. I probably have a longer space-noise tolerance level than most

yeah, i've tried a number of times with both x-rated fairy tales and superior catholic finger. can't get there, though i do get a chuckle out of the nasal, pervy-weirdo voice he adopts on the title track of the latter (and elsewhere, e.g. "legs").

i dig the noise, the weirdness and especially the guitar mangling, but something about the sense of tune (or jam or whatever) just leaves me cold. maybe it's the songwriting, such as it is, and maybe it's the group chemistry, i can't really say. everytime a track starts up, i'll think, "this sounds GREAT!" ...but a minute or two later, i'm bored and wanting to skip to the next one. same response i have to red exposure and blood on the moon, btw. maybe i'm too much a slave to pop hooks, i dunno. i'm not saying they're bad records, just that i don't grok.

i get the same feeling with helios creed, some sounds are pretty good but it seems like he's working with a limited songwriting palette. you can hear the same i don't know, parts (wish I knew more about songwriting to explain) as the later Chrome stuff and throughout his catalog. the repetitive ideas make it hard to get into. maybe it was the creed/edge combo that made it all work.

Helios Creed is doing a Kickstarter-type campaign to put out some unreleased Chrome tracks from the classic '79 to '80 period.

http://vimeo.com/53466596

Half Machine from the Sun, The Lost Chrome Tracks from '79-'80

Damon Edge & I made these ‘Lost Chrome Tracks’ during recording sessions for Half Machine Lip Moves & Red Exposure. We had so much material, good tracks went unused. I didn’t even realize the tapes were lost (and sold) due to an unpaid bill! I forgot about them until they were played for me recently, some 30 years later, but listening to the work I was brought right back in time where we had left off. I remembered for instance that I felt ‘Something Rhythmic’ was a special track, maybe even a hit. I guess it wasn’t time to complete these tracks then, because now is their time.

I’m turning to you my fans & asking for your help so I can buy back the material, finish it the way it was meant & then release it to you! We’ve assembled a mind blowing array of art, music & more for this campaign. The ‘Mythology of Helios Creed & Chrome’ modeled illustration poster is incredible, as is the 1980 photograph of Damon & I. So please check out our pledges & do what you can! Purchasing a pledge entitles you to a download of The Lost Chrome Tracks release, plus you’ll have access to exclusive posts, videos & updates here. So come hang out with us on Pledge Music.

I’ve created new music for close to 40 years now. This ‘Lost Chrome Tracks’ release & a new Chrome album I’ve been recording this year, will be my 37th & 38th albums. If we surpass our goals for The Lost Chrome Tracks, I will use pledges towards my rerelease project, the goal of which is to make my entire recorded catalog available. Please also know that a portion of your pledges will be donated to Sweet Relief Musician’s Fund. For pledges made outside of the US international shipping is added to your pricing.

Thank you, Helios Creed

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/chrome

finally dipped my toes into damon edge's solo chrome. nothing remotely close to helios/edge era, but this song's kinda cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo9IW-aTz6g

changed my mind about creed, kiss to the brain's pretty damn good. def satisfies my need for fracked out alien rock.

i thought no one liked post-helios chrome?

love neds review of the live album

oops i forgot the link http://www.allmusic.com/album/live-in-germany-mw0000898384

I don't like much post-Helios Chrome but there's a decent track or two among the skronk-less minefield.

can't get enough of this band, even 13 years on from discovering them. wish more people made music like 'em.

soooo Half Machine From The Sun is out now!

http://www.popmatters.com/review/173372-chrome-half-machine-from-the-sun-the-lost-chrome-tapes-79-80/

Great! Only about seven months late, with nothing shipped to those of us who had pre-ordered it through pledge music.com.

OK I am one and a half tracks in and this is amazing.

I finally got my CD today (even though I had the digital files some time ago).

The shit that Damon and Helios left on the cutting room floor a quarter century ago sounds more vibrant and relevant than most contemporary releases.

yep

track five, still amazing

where is Milton, he needs to hear this

this is excellent and all on youtube for anyone curious.

this might be my AOTY

have played it a few times since I got a copy. sound is exactly halfway between the 70's rock of The Visitation and the complete acid meltdown of Alien Soundtracks. nowhere as weird or finessed as the latter just yet, so you can see why these got left behind -- plays through a little more like an archive than an album, but track by track these are definitely not outtakes

cd packaging is AUTHENTIC

hmm I was getting serious hits of Red Exposure on my first listen, but there were some pretty weird diversions and I only got to track 6 or so

re CD packaging, I shook my head with a mixture of admiration and horror

and yes these are missing the freaky chaos tape splicing vibe, but everything has THAT SOUND, drums sound amazing on this

My appreciation of Chrome really does come down to THAT SOUND.

awesome stuff, especially THAT SOUND - such an awesome track

fuck you

"he shit that Damon and Helios left on the cutting room floor a quarter century ago sounds more vibrant and relevant than most contemporary releases."

sad but true

humorless
xpost?

that came off as mocking, not a joke - apologies if I misread you

have you heard this? do you have any further input or are you just gonna start another poll?

i think i'll start another poll

likes the sincere apology though

Has anyone seen the current tour? I'm going tomorrow, might pick up the lost album at the gig, they also have a new one out called Feel It Like A Scientist - anyone heard that yet?

why aren't they playing SF?

Got the album but not yet given an ear. The cover art feels more Helios twenty years back than Chrome but hey.

why aren't they playing SF?

Because no-one asked them to, I assume.

Yeah, I have the album too but haven't worked up the nerve to play it. I haven't really cared about much of anything Chrome- or Creed-related since Lactating Purple.

Has anyone seen the current tour? I'm going tomorrow, might pick up the lost album at the gig, they also have a new one out called Feel It Like A Scientist - anyone heard that yet?

They were absolutely bloody deadly at Primavera last month, one of the highlights of the weekend by miles

New album's pretty good. It helps to keep the original Chrome out of mind when listening to this, that sound's never going to be made again. I think it fits better next to stuff like Gary War, and I'm always open for more weirdo sounds.

Always classic, more evil than anything black metal's managed to come up with so far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LI1NgmdGg4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9tX6bKI0WQ

this song kicks ass. wish more bands went down this territory. i mean, with the whole "lol occult" trend over the past few years, i don't see how bands wouldn't want to cop this shit. alas, there's only one Chrome.

Does anyone know why if I open Chrome and a pair of tabs, then check Task Manager, there are half a dozen instances of it running?

Hah oh wrong thread.

"Dozen Tabs Running" was a Helios Creed b-side, not Chrome, IIRC.

LOL tabs and Chrome seem to belong together.

was gonna say

Apologies for consumerist query, but has anyone seen/heard Cleopatra's 7LP Chrome Box reissue from last year? I haven't been able to dig up any information beyond what the label says about it.

Chrome US tour from mid-May to mid-June.

http://scontent.fphl2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/30531552_10160536427735227_7728194264991006720_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=30584895122caff4353caaaff2eeecc0&oe=5B29588C

Barring hell or high water, I shall be at the Philly date.

this band is good

Just remembered I was going to look up a Chrome thread and mention that the Stench brothers played with Jorma Kaukonen in his late 70s solo band which I only found out from reading his memoir.
Haven't heard what they sound like with him yet though.

I want to know more about the circumstances of John Lambdin playing with Flower Travellin' Band before Chrome (see top of thread). I love that there's a connection.