Chrome: C or D?

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?