CHROME'S Half Machine from the Sun, COLLECTIBLE PURPLE COLOR VINYL 2LP 1ST PRESS
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March 24, 2016
Start Date:
October 24, 2014
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King of Spades Records is CHROME's very own label, and this is our final stock of the 1st edition colored vinyl albums. We shelfed them after the very intensive Pledge Music campaign and are just getting around to releasing these last few to lucky people.
Speaking of 'shelved' Half Machine from the Sun, the Lost Tracks from '79-'80 is a double album of shelfed material, previously unreleased songs composed by original members Damon Edge and Helios Creed in 1979 and 1980. "...quite literally the GREAT lost Chrome album-recorded when these guys were ON FIRE" states Dangerous Mind's Richard Metzger in his piece "HALF MACHINE FROM THE SUN, THE GREAT LOST CHROME TRACKS...If you like Chrome, its an absolute must." Its a double album with cover artwork designed by artist and current band member Monet Clark and inspired by the late Damon Edge. And displays also a vintage photograph shot by famed California punk documenter/photographer Ruby Ray. It also comes with a double sided insert featuring a historical essay on the late 70's early 80's music scenes in San Francisco, by Helios Creed himself.
Please check out King of Spades Records other offerings here on ebay, including 1st pressing translucent red colored vinyl editions of the new 2014 Chrome album Feel It Like A Scientist, and cds, Half Machine from the Sun cds, CHROME'S Angel of the Clouds cds just rereleased! T-shirts, Helios Creed solo albums, autographed vinyl and more!
Chrome, the seminal Avant-Punk Psychedelic outfit, were groundbreaking in their experimentation in sound and raw energy. They are known for their de/re-construction of Rock ‘n Roll and a Sci-Fi-Punk collage of searing rock with noise, innovation, weirdness, sound-bites, hooks, pile driver rhythms (including scrap metal percussion), heavy rhythm-guitar riffs, effects laden vocals and Psychedelic guitar leads, and mind-bending audio manipulations. Chrome’s originality has influenced a wide range of musical genres as well as generations of bands. They exploded the possibilities of what Punk, Psychedelic, New Wave and Industrial Rock could sound like.
The band was founded by vocalist and drummer Damon Edge in 1975 who was influenced by proto-Punk pioneers such as the Stooges, as well as the sound art experimentation of John Cage. Heavy Rock guitarist and vocalist Helios Creed joined Chrome, replacing their original guitarist, in 1976. Composing songs with Edge he came in to make Chrome’s commercial and artistic breakthrough album Alien Soundtracks in 1977. Creed and Edge comprised the main creative force behind their next album Half Machine Lip Moves in 1979, which has a remained an underground classic and Red Exposure in 1980. The duo release several more albums and EPs through 1983, then they parted ways.
These Lost Chrome Tracks were made in the years 1979 and 1980. The prolific creative output of Edge and Creed produced a plethora of songs. When it came time for selecting which ones to release this amazing collection was left behind. At the time their ears were attuned towards more experimental pieces. Many of these previously unreleased tracks are simply more accessible, while still maintaining Chrome’s signature weirdness. Others are pure experimental noise. In all this double album opens a window back in time to this groundbreaking era in Rock and completes the audio record of classic Chrome’s creative range.
Press:
Sunday New York Times – Ben Ratliff’s in Playlist 10/6/13
"...One of the things that makes the record so good is how intriguing the grooves and pockets and riffs are, how close the music theoretically seems to be getting to something more universally appealing — David Bowie’s sound at that moment, for example. Time does only favors to Chrome: the music the band made sounds more prescient, still strange and scratchy and generative. It could still theoretically start a new movement".
Caught In The Carousel 11/5/13
“Chrome’s origins actually pre-date punk itself, never mind post-punk…Half Machine From The Sun [is] essential listening, whatever decade, future or past, your time machine landed you in when you woke up this morning. A timelessly now document of two insatiably creative minds at the warp-speed tip of their partnered abilities, make it your mission to hear this record. You’ll marvel.” CITC Score: 94%
Massmovement.co.uk - Jim Dodge 12/6/13
"...this [is] one of the greatest ‘lost’ albums of the early punk era".
Record Collector – issue #418 Ian Shirley
"By 1979 Chrome were firing on all cylinders. Their third self-released album, Half Machine Lip Moves, sent Stooges-rock on a collision course with industrial-psychedelic production and receive fulsome praise in the music press. That same year’s Subterranean Modern compilation, on which they shared space with MX-8- Sound, The Residents and Tuxedomoon, got them into a 16-track studio for the first time. It also secured them a deal with Beggars Banquet, who would release the group’s polished album, Red Exposure in 1980. Amazingly, 35 years later, lost tapes of near-mastered and previously unreleased material covering this period and (possibly) slightly beyond have emerged. And this stuff is astounding...these 18 lost gemes prove that Chrome delivered gold in the studio”
Soft Bodies Blog UK 6/13
“This is essential like an important internal organ”
PunkNews.org – John Gentile 12/20/13
"Chrome were punk personified in concept, but about as far away from Ramones as one could get musically. For the most part, people didn’t get it. Now that society has had 30 years to catch up, its clear how groundbreaking they were...Half Machine from the Sun is perhaps Chrome’s most approachable album...It’s no surprise Chrome never really got their recognition—this band were far ahead of their time. What is surprising is that here, the band maintain their incredibly unique, strange identity, but make is so digestible. One almost wonders if the band buried this not because they didn’t like it, but because it would invite too many people into their strange universe. ..Truly, a long lost classic."
WIRE Magazine UK – Underground Music issue Frances Morgan 1/14
Chrome’s Alien Soundtracks and Half Machine Lip Moves were released in 1977 and 1979, which make them contemporaries of Mad Max, Philip K Dick’s VALIS, La Dusseldorf’s Viva, The Cramps “Human Fly” and Secondhand Daylight by Magazine —a possibly useful set of vectors within which to place drummer Damon Edge and guitarist/vocalist Helios Creed’s dystopian psych-punk prowl, which reached its brief peak with those two albums. The San Francisco group made acid rock for listeners for whom LSD was less a portal to hippy enlightenment than a way of wiring oneself into the matrix of now, amplifying ecstasy, anger, lust and paranoia. Their influence would surface later in groups like The Jesus Lizard and Butthole Surfers, with Amphetamine Reptile releasing Creed’s solo albums in the 1990’s. Half Machine From The Sun unearths one and a half hours of previously unheard music from Chrome’s prime period of 1979-80…There is enough dirty gold on Half Machine From The sun to make it a valuable addition to the discography.”
Roctoberreviews.blogspot.com – Jake Austen 1/14
"The greatest argument ever for casting outer space psychedelic noisemeister Helios Creed as a madman now exists: not releasing these tracks upon completion 33 years ago was fucking crazy!...This hour and a quarter of mesmerizing magic casts sonic spells that have only become more potent after festering in shadows for decades…"
Louderthanwar.com – 1/23/14
"Chrome were a band who really should be higher on that alternative pyramid. Somehow melding Punk, New Wave, Psych, Industrial, Electro, Sci-Fi into a seething mass of sonic hardcore energy. Blasting laser white light onto silver and reflecting eye-widening colour, the whole of which was never brighter than on ‘Half Machine Lips Move’ [which] easily sits in my all time Top 10 and I’m sure an inspiration for many bands you love today, yesterday and tomorrow....Some thirty-odd years after creating this work two of the most mind-expanding artists need to be on the tips of all twitchy left-field tongues and if this collection [Half Machine from the Sun] helps to lick a new breed of Mondo Mayhem into shape then I’ll be more than happy. Damon may not inhabit this earth but we still have Helios Creed to feed on and while he’s around thankfully the March Of The Chrome Police will continue to collage the sonic threshold of sound with a kaleidoscope of colour. Bring on a New Age.”
OtherMusic.com -Doug Mosurock 6/6/13
"Has there ever been another band quite like Chrome? The San Francisco futurists rolled through the prime cut of 20th century post-modern rock expression, from art rock through punk and into new wave, leaving a wet stain across all three with a defiantly uncompromising and often uncategorizable sound. Half Machine from the Sun collects 18 never-before-released tracks from a period where the duo of Damon Edge and Helios Creed was running hot...Stern beats, heavily-processed guitars, textures and grumblings from another dimension: this one's got 'em, and in quantity. It's a fascinating release that pulls back the veil a bit on one of the more challenging and complex outfits of the era".
Seattle PI – Greg Barbrick 12/8/13
“The Bay Area has always been a haven for experimental artists, and during the late '70s, nobody personified this more than Chrome….To this day, nobody has played music like Chrome….The duo of Creed and Edge were known for some of the most intense music ever…Some of these lost cuts are phenomenal. Right from the opening…
...It is a strange thing to say, but these forgotten tracks work so well as to provide the most accessible introduction to Chrome that I can think of…Half Machine from the Sun has some middle ground. It's not a lot, and nothing that could ever be called "sell-out," but some actual melodies, and some fantastic playing. This is about as far from a "leftovers" collection as I could imagine. Chrome were at a peak during this time, and it certainly shows.
This is an excellent, and highly welcome collection”.
The Pulse, Chattanooga TN
"...there's no 'dipping the toes in the water' with Chrome, its best to just cannonball dive into the groups, visionary, futuristic, weirdness."
Wicked Spins Radio full feature interview 3/2/14
“…Chrome is just finishing up our new album FEEL IT LIKE A SCIENTIST…As an artist I’ve tried to keep stretching the methodologies for creating music that Damon and I developed within the context of Chrome: spontaneity, scary/funny, heavy, weird, dark, Punk, Psychedelic, Rock, cut and paste, sound bites, bizerker effects, deconstruction, noise for noise sake, any kind of noise, no rules, Acidic… The Chrome approach is alive. We often all create unrehearsed on the spot, the same way that Damon and I worked…And sometimes I write out songs, like I did with Prophecy our single. I asked the band to all write lines in the lyrics. Damon and I both admired The White Album where the Beatles just freak out and do whatever they want. Later, I’ve read that they were inspired by John Cage during that period, same as Damon. Anyway, I was like ‘wow these guys are just doing what they want, no more baby I wanna hold your hand anymore’. Anyway FEEL IT LIKE A SCIENTIST has got it. Its got my veteran members Tommy Grenas on keys and Aleph Omega on drums. Both have been with me 16 years, so they’ve been “Chromed” a long time. We have newer members working with us Monet Clark the performance artist (aka Anne Dromeda) who sings and is great at composing and brings this conceptual energy to the mix much like Damon. Keith Thompson is this really talented young guitarist. Our newest member Steve Fishman has played with so many luminaries and I can understand why, because he’s just a great bass player. The album is coming out in April and its how I’ve always wanted Chrome to sound! Its what I always imagined Chrome could be post Damon, ya know. I’ve been able to take it to the next level.” —Helios Creed Chrome,
Paraphiliamag.com – Dixe Flatley’s feature interview Third Times A Charm: 2/14
“Pioneers of the Acid Punk movement Chrome emerged from San Francisco in the late-70s. Their fusion of bad sci-fi movies, noise, UFOs, and heavy rock laid the groundwork for a genre that would become known as Industrial music; however their obvious influence has been obscured by the passage of time. Upon listening to Chrome for the first time, the impact that their sound had on future musicians is obvious.
Chrome’s cut-up techniques created a market, a market that they were admittedly too early to corner. In his formative years Helios Creed set out to out-weird Hawkwind, give Psychedelia a dark side, and force an evolutionary shift away from the status quo of the late-60s hippie culture. Fueled by the curiosity of what would happen if Punk did acid, Chrome went on to create the sounds that influenced the electro-industrial movement
Chrome has experienced many shifts in its lineup since those formative years, and has a new album out, Feel It Like A Scientist. Helios answered a few questions for Paraphilia and shared the creative process behind the sound that he and Damon Edge shared during their formative years, and where Chrome is headed in the 21st century.”
“We work so spontaneously in Chrome we don’t always remember what we’ve recorded and I’m having that situation now where my current backing vocalist Monet Clark, laid down actually a lead vocal track on the new album, that she just told me last night she can’t quite recall how it goes, because see she did it in one take on the fly. She made a masterpiece that day…She wrote the lyrics, while the band was laying down the bottom tracks. Then we put her in the vocal booth and recorded her top tracks and she just went in and nailed it in one take. That is how to do it!”
UKs Shindig SpaceRock Special Chrome full feature interview including a review of 2014 single Prophecy 3/14 (hard copy only) —Jerry Kranitz
'Prophecy' is the first single from the album [Feel It Like A Scientist] & to call it a monster would be an understatement. The spirit of classic Chrome is intact, without being a retro rehash of days gone by. The song ROCKS hard in space, sporting a catchy riff, killer blazing dual guitars, & haunting keys & backing vocals....If the rest of the album is as good as 'Prophecy', this edition of Chrome is sure to make a splash in the post-millennium spacerock world'.
Shindig! Magazine’s top 30 Space Rock songs 3/14
Chrome’s Chromosome Damage listed as #12
Uncut Magazine Rocklist Chrome’s 1977 release Alien Soundtracks listed as #8 of The 50 Greatest American Punk Albums 1/14
The Weeklings —Alien Soundtracks gets the #2 spot, in list of 50 Most Drug-Addled Albums in Music History (Eclipsed only by Sid Barrett’s Madcap Laughs and Barrett and coming above Captain Beefhearts Trout Mask Replica and an incredible list of works) 3/2/14
Requirements to make list include: “Altered states…a blind leap into the void…sometimes madness…undeniable beauty…Every single album on this list is a remarkable document, and warrant repeated listens over the course of a lifetime”
CaughtInTheCarousel.com – David Cantrell’s full feature interview 11/5/13
“With the release of Half Machine From The Sun – The Lost Tracks from ’79-’80, Helios Creed’s tenure as the surviving keeper of the Chrome flame has come full circle. In light of that, Creed sat down at the other end of an email connection to discuss Sabbath, Hendrix, Damon Edge, the pitfalls of intense partnership and, umm, balcony-jumping. You can read a review of the album (not to give it away, but we’re rather fond of it here at CITC) but for the time being, settle in and have a listen. This is history talking”.
i94bar Sidney Austrilia —Robert Brokenmouth positive review of HMFTS and article about Chrome 3/14
“Chrome fuck with your expectations. The first song on "Alien Soundtracks" seems like about five. The multiple changes and developments within the songs can be abrupt and thrilling. Like the Velvets, or Suicide, or the Silver Apples, I always think Chrome should’ve conquered America. They were harder than most outfits of their time, heavy in the sense that a HM band could only premature about”.
Total Radio, the Daily Show Mike Bradshaw May 23, 2014 Music beamed back to us from the future for todays special, traveling down the sonic wormhole to play the splintered industrial punk metal uncatagorizable post everything band CHROME. Still one of my favorite bands after all this time, been listening to the Chrome boys recently, and last years archived released Half Machine from the Sun has only encouraged me…here art tracks from golden age of the Bay Area Collossus…"
The Thugbrarian Review The Thugbrarian Set List: “2013 may have been the year that Chrome took its rightful place as a major force in the music world."
The Quietus Chrome, receives the #1 spot: from band Teeth Of The Sea’s Post-Punk Playlist: 3/13
Be Quiet Be Killed! “These dozen gems represent an attempt to plot a course of timeless post-punk iconoclasm that steers clear of the well-worn paths and the received wisdoms that have bee perpetuated. These, still startling in 2013, are eternal flies in the ointment…”
“…Helios Creed and Damon Edge are without doubt Teeth Of Seas’s favorite pair of barge-based cosmic sorcerers, building rickety rockets to Mars that run on little more than a surfeit of Iggy-esque aggro and a truckload of melted down trash culture artifacts. This, the opening statement of intent on arguably their finest platter o’ splatter, 1979’s Half Machine Lip Moves, is their mischievous mission statement made manifest.”
HALF MACHINE FROM THE SUN, BEST OF 2013 LISTS:
La Pelle Muta Italian review and Top #1 spot of 2013
"These are outtakes, the lost tapes as they are coming out a lot in this period…but "[these] are impressive, the material is completely new…with a yet current sound that has endured over time, not a small thing. Chrome along with Factrix, Tuxedo Moon, the Residents, Nervous Gender, was one of the main groups of the musical renaissance of San Francisco on the end of the 70's that wiped out completely weak resistance hippies….at the first position of my top 10 list for 2013!"
Vinyl Districts best of 2013 list
If Ears Dominated the Eyes 2013 top albums of 2013
Modern Radio.com Best Recordings of 2013
Permanent Records favorite release of 2013
Brainswashed.com best albums 2013
Kosmikradiation.com He listed Half Machine from the Sun as number #2 !
Scott Colburn’s best 2013 Audio Wizardry and Related Sciences
Dark Divines French Mag best of 2013 list #1
“These too underestimated pioneers have always been 30 years ahead! This album is a gem not to be missed.”
WXDU Duke Radio North Carolina best of 2013
MEDIA BREAKS CONTINUED:
WXDU live interview
Danish Magazine Devilution review 1/14
“…Musical can be described as a mutation of ultrabizar Hawkwind and The Residents. Or Roxy Music meets Throbbing Gristle. Added future paranoia from Philip K. Dick. Science Fiction proto / post-punk? Gary Numan on LSD and horse pills? Their songs are so sovset into the guitar, synth and vocal effects that it defies comparison. standard is incredibly high throughout the release through here is no filler, just a sublime nightmare soundtrack from another dimension. While the album sounds so timeless and fresh in 2013 that it is almost otherworldly. An absolute must for any Chrome fan - and others who are tired of predictable, conformist røvballerock ( "butt cheek rock", it could be translated into "middle of the road rock”) and want to be challenged, but do not dare take an acid trip. Music flowing out of the speakers like a lava flow of consciousness expanding proto-cyberpunk, slowly but surely, eat your frontal lobes….”
UK WIRE Magazine Office Ambience list for 12/13 issue
Fear and Loathing Long Beach Feature interview including the new line up Vol 1 2014
“Now we are starting a new episode. We’re keeping the same free approach, Acid-Punk, weird guitar effects, Pig-Tronics, using strange samples, good song writing, and playing heavy and spontaneous etc., but we’re taking it to the next level…(the 2014 single Prophecy) I believe is some of our best work, and Prophecy is only a sample of even better stuff. My band is excited about it. I have the best band put together, finally I think its manifested the way I always imagined it could be…I can’t wait to unleash it on the people and kick your fucking ass. The Rock plus the weird shit. Yes, full circle 100%…” —Helios Creed
The Pulse, Chattanooga TN 3/14 page 16: "...there's no 'dipping the toes in the water' with Chrome, its best to just cannonball dive into the groups, visionary, futuristic, weirdness."
Head Heritage UK reviews Read Only Memory 1/14
Joyzine new Chrome fan reviews Read Only Memory 2/14
Q Magazine – hard copy ran Andrew Perry’s positive album review in 1/14
AcousticMusic.com – posted Mark Tucker’s positive album review 12/11/13
"Chrome was one of those groups who fell into three divisions with a public that 1) loved 'em, 2) hated 'em, or 3) were attracted to the mutated psychedelic sounds but never knew what the hell to make of 'em. I was...one of the lattermost in the trio of estates... Chrome is cited as being the godfather of Industrial Rock...they were definitely among the prime influences... You get 18 cuts in a 74-minute CD, so there's sufficient space to do some serious damage to your brain and outlook by the time the player stops shaking, the speakers cool down, and the windows cease rattling. Not many can take this ilk of strange twilit waves of brain damage, but, for those who can, it never gets old…and the more I listen, the more I'm moving into that first set of audits..."
Daytrotter.com Recording the current line up LIVE November 2014!– Sean Moeller posted 12/13/14
"This is definitely the coolest Daytrotter Session I've heard yet. Chrome shows absolutely no sign of letting up, and this sub-22 minute set is a fantastic demonstration that the group's patented space/noise rock sound is still operating at full capacity. Helios Creed and company deliver a hearteningly wild version of "TV as Eyes / Zombie Warfare," and the squiggly voices and beeps on "Fukushima (Nagasaki)" straight-up rule. Great stuff for sure, and something Chrome fans shouldn't miss". -
CHUO FM Chrome special Ottawa 6/13
Blogcritics.org Greg Barbricks highly positive review 12/13
WN .com
John L. Murphy/ “Fionnchu” Irish Blog 12/13
Full song by song review of HMFTS
http://fionnchu.blogspot.com/2013/12/chromes-half-machine-from-sun-music.html
LA Record – posted Lydia Brunch’s positive album review 11/26/13
"Any new Chrome from the pre-Dossier era is a gift from the music gods. Worship and you will be rewarded".
Blurtonline.com – posted Michael Toland’s positive album review 11/22/13
Psychedelic/punk/industrial/weirdo troop Chrome never got its due during its original late 70s/80s existence, despite having an almost Velvet Underground-style influence on all who heard it.
Thumped.com – posted MacDara Conroy’s positive album review 11/20/13
“Chrome were cyberpunk before there was ever such a thing”.
Cult Montreal – ran Jonathan Cummins’ positive album review in 11/13
If you haven’t been digging into the avant-punk freakouts of this seminal San Fran duo, you’re really missing out. Bursting out of the Bay Area in ’76, Chrome blazed a trail in the underground while borrowing heavily from the Stooges, Red Krayola, Silver Apples, Krautrock bands and minimalist composers like John Cage. This “lost” Chrome record is, oddly enough, the best thing they’ve ever released. Over the double LP set, Chrome delve deeply into experimental tape loops (“Autobahn Brazil”) while brazenly flirting with traditional pop structure without raising a blush (“The Rain”). If you’re just getting on board with the new psych/post-punk train, this record will definitely put the bubble in yer bong. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Something Rhythmic (I Can’t Wait)”
Magnet – ran Brian Baker’s positive album review in issue #104 (hard copy only)
“Nothing says cash-in like vault diving for "lost tracks" but we're talking about Chrome, not Jimi Hendrix or Tupac Shakur. Damon Edge and Helios Creed took inspiration from the Stooges, John Cage and Arabic music and influenced several generations of musical endeavor without ever approaching commercial success. Not that they wanted it; the unearthed explorations found on Half Machine from the Sun date to the 1979-80 sessions that produced the cultish breakthrough of the brilliant Half Machine Lip Moves but represented Chrome's more experimental, less accessible aspects, and it's still pretty thrilling stuff three and a half decades later. Half Machine from the Sun showcases the sounds and sensations even they thought wouldn't work at the time, but repetition, chaos, cut-and-paste audio collage, throbbing guitar rock and sheets of atmospheric noise were always and clearly remain potent ingredients in Chrome's often indecipherable but always intriguing studio cookbook”.
S.L.U.G. Magazine – ran Mistress Nancy 11/13
"Helios Creed and Damon Edge release a piece of lost post-punk history. There is art and beauty to be found in this twisted, nostalgic release. “
WRIR-FM (Richmond, VA) - Phil D did on-air interview 11/6/13
Review from The Rummage 11/13
“Half Machine from the Sun is a hearty dose of Chrome’s own creative expressions at the time when these two way-out dudes weren’t just coming from left field — they were in an entirely different ballpark. This album fits well into their discography as a recording of the period, but in no way does it feel dated. Chrome was never a band you could pinpoint easily to an era since they sounded so unique, then and now. This is one of the best surprise releases of 2013”
Thevinyldistrict.com – posted Joseph Neff’s positive album review Graded on a Curve: A- 11/6/13
"The boundary-pushing San Francisco group Chrome is a long-celebrated staple from the fringes of the original punk narrative. In helping to establish the direction for much of the ‘80s less formally restrictive underground action their reputation is secure, but the music easily transcends historical importance and endures on its own merits. Greatly emphasizing this circumstance is the appearance of Half Machine from the Sun, an 18-track 2LP set of lost tracks from the midst of their peak era. Sharing nothing with a dish of reheated leftovers, it offers instead a copious look at how prescient and stylistically varied Damon Edge and Helios Creed actually were.
...The selections cohere into a hefty statement that stands tall in comparison to the best from ’78-’82 era…broaden[ing] the scope of an already striking and hugely influential outfit…Half Machine from the Sun exudes contemporary sharpness and spark (but not polish)...a very engaging journey into one of the USA’s most daring punk-era outfits."
InnocentWords.com – posted Steve Wippich’s album review 11/4/13
“It’s been thirty four years since Chrome released Half Machine Lip Moves and unleashing a sci-fi world view that was of future dystopic, distorted, drug-enhanced, delinquent, something fairly strange at that time in music, although Hawkwind had definitely done some digging in that world. Their future was more Alien than Star Wars…Chrome started in the early 70’s San Francisco by Damon Edge. Later Helios Creed joined after hearing them and knowing that it was the band for him. Chrome was/are a strange mix of art noise with a beat and some pop sensibility. Pop, if only for the fact that they have a a steady beat, verses and/or choruses. The vocals are distorted, warped by effects, to the point of sounding robotic or alien…Helios, while not a founding member, definitely became one of the main members, writing and co-writing much of the material. Clocking in at 73 and some odd minutes with 18 tracks, you’ll get your money’s worth.
NME —Video of the album cover playing the track The Rain 11/13
(no longer posted)
blurtonline.com – Fred Mills posted live track from ’81 with news about new album release 11/1/13
Santa Cruz Weekly – posted Jacob Pierce’s feature 10/29/13
Recoup – posted Joseph Kyle’s positive album review 10/11/13
"Half-Machine From The Sun is an interesting, amazing collection of lost recordings from a duo who were clearly ahead of their time; it certainly proves that sometimes, the times will eventually catch up with you."
Alain Cliche Literature Insoleite et musique assortie, Chrome Pionnier du Rock Industrial 4/1/14
Iris Records posts Alain Cliche’s English version Alain Chlche Thinks You Need Chrome In Your Life 4/9/2014
Rich Quinlan, JerseyBeat.com (hardcopy only)
"This gem from the Jimmy Carter era finally sees the light of day and the wait is well worth it. Chrome was the creation of Helios Creed and Damon Edge largely, and this double record of lost pieces recorded in 1979 and 1980. Having missed this the first time around thirty years ago, I was inspired when I listened to swirling noise, punk angst, and memorable harmonies found within. Chrome is exactly the type of band that needs to exist today, for they take rock in a variety of directions without ever sacrificing the basic elements of sweat, lust, and fury that drives rock. The eighteen songs found within includes the menacing proto-punk of "Anything" and "Fukishima", two songs that any industrial tinged band should fall to their knees and worship. Half Machine From the Sun reeks of the end of the 70's; the sense of confusion and general societal burnout is tangible on the synth-infused noise on "The Inevitable" and "Charlie's Little Problem". The baby steps of 80's synth pop are also prevalent, as are the finer elements of Joy Division style darkness buried within warm layers of harmonious hooks. There is no obvious "Love Will Tear Us Apart" here, but "Sound and Light" should have been a hit, and anyone who appreciated Lou Reed's brilliance with the Velvet Underground should fire up "Looking for Your Door". The etherial "Ghost" is appropriately intimidating and disconcerting, while "Something Rhythmic (I Can't Wait)" even smacks of the foundations of indie pop. Innovative, distinctive, challenging, and majestic in scope,
Chrome is an act that was decades ahead of its time".
Fear and Loathing Long Beach positive review of Chrome’s 2014 single Prophecy 9/13
"Prophecy is a hard driven mental rock ’n roll psyche out guitar driven masterpiece ambient hard rock in a stew of synth sounds with biting vocals only Helios can deliver! Truly music to my ears. YOU WILL LOVE IT!”
northforksound.blogspot.com/ - ran Howard Thompson’s mention 9/8/13
Podcast live interview with Helios Creed on WRIR 97.3 Richmond VA 6/13
MagnetMagazine.com – posted Emily Cosantino’s news item about album review 8/30/13
Uncut – ran Jon Dale’s positive album review (hardcopy only) 9/13
“The Myth of Chrome, San Francisco’s outer space ways acid-rock legends, rest on their two glorious albums from the late ’70s, Alien Soundtracks and Half Machine Lip Moves, and 1980’s Red Exposure. Though leader Damon Edge had already released one album of passable psych-rock, The Visitation, it took guitarist Helios Creed joining up in ’76 for Chrome to really find their groove, a coruscating, face-peeling take on rock form that’s surprisingly hard to pin down: your best bet, maybe, is Can covering AC/DC while routed through Suicide’s patch bay. Though they were often read as an Industrial due. due to their connections with The Residents and Ralph Records, Chrome were really only Industrial as descriptor: guitars like paint-stripper, synths that are toxic, corrosive, blistered. Half Machine From the Sun mops up unreleased tracks from sessions for ….Lip Moves and Red Exposure and it’s just as great as you’d imagine, though a little more ‘naked’ —some of the layers of brittle, trebled-out FX have been removed, revealing Chrome as great, uncompromising minimalist rock thugs…this shit’ll flay the skin from your bones. Amen”.
northforksound.blogspot.com/ - ran Howard Thompson’s mention 8/20/13
Popmatters.com, exystence.net – posted John Murphy’s positive album review 8/1/13
"Grinding and harsh, eerie and unsettling, these terms often describe Chrome. Yet, as Creed remarks in the liner notes, accessible, nearly pop-oriented material entered their repertoire…
“Fukishima (Nagasaki)”…The fact that this song does not sound as unfamiliar over three decades later attests to the subtle influence exerted by Chrome on contemporary musicians at the fringe”.
Slakerblud Greek blog 7/13
Let me take a break for the ignorant. Who are these Chrome, then? The easy answer is: one of the best, protoporiakoteres Post Punk bands of all time. The Helios Creed of the most amazing guitarists of all time. The Damon Edge ... Fuck it, genius. All but of all time.... Now what can I say? If good this album? Visit? Eh Yes, it is."
Exystence.net blog positive review 6/13
http://exystence.net/blog/2013/08/06/chrome-half-machine-from-the-sun-the-lost-chrome-tapes-79-80-2013/
OndaRock Italian review HMFTS 7/12/13
Nerds Attack 7/13
http://www.nerdsattack.net/chrome-il-nuovo-album/
PunkGlobe.com – posted news story about album release 6/13
Chicago Reader – ran Monica Kendricks’ preview 5/13
"Helios Creed, the guitarist, singer, songwriter, and sound artist who's been the driving force behind all recent incarnations of legendary sci-fi/psych/punk/postpunk band Chrome, didn't even play on their 1976 debut, The Visitation. But it's pretty unanimously agreed that the band really took off after he joined, with the superweird 1978 and '79 masterpieces Alien Soundtracks and Half Machine Lip Moves.”
ChicagoMusic.org – posted Jamie Ludwig’s preview 5/10/13
“Chrome’s psych experimentations took space rock into new dimensions and made the band a forerunner of industrial music and noise”.
thetotalscene.blogspot.com – posted Eric Schelkopf’s advance feature 5/11/13
http://www.thetotalscene.blogspot.com/
Hell Hound Music 5/13
http://www.hellhoundmusic.com/audio-of-unreleased-vintage-chrome-track-from-upcoming-2lp-set/
Chicago Tribune A&E Top Weekend Show Hozak Blackout Fest at the Empty Bottle 5/13
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-17/entertainment/chi-hozac-blackout-fest-20130517_1_top-weekend-show-empty-bottle-1035-n
OIFM.FI/ Ripple Rock, Finland esse Gehlen aired interview 5/9/13
Upper Canada College Students Blog review of 1979’s Half Machine Lip Moves: 2012
"..no matter how spacey the music gets, the album is still, at its heart, a punk masterpiece. The energy that these guys play with is excessive, separating themselves from the endless array of Hawkwind copycats... When punk hit it big in 1977, the public consensus was that non-musicians were suddenly forming bands with no respect for the past. Chrome weren’t like that. Instead, they took the ferocious energy found in punk, added the acid rock guitar ...sprinkled in some industrial music, and created a left-field masterpiece. Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary should be paying these guys royalties."
Savage Hippie Music Review Blogspot 6/13
“Looking for Your Door” has a dance beta! It sounds like Public Image Ltd. in outer space!…. “The Rain sounds like new wavey/goth pop, perhaps like something Wire would have done… Half Machine from the Sun…its a win for fans, but not a bad introduction either.”
Julian Cope Presents the Modern Antequarian 6/13
“For any and all hard-wired fans of Chrome, the recent PledgeMusic project to fund the release of the 'lost tracks' from '79 to '80 as the "Half Machine From The Sun" album is little short of a miracle”.
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/forum/?thread=69040
Disaster Amnesiac Blogspot 6/13
“Creed’s guitar playing is cutting and incisive on tunes such as ‘Looking For Your Door’, almost industry. On Sunset he unleashes six string squalls that sound like updates and refinements of the Hendrix sound. His vocals range from really freaked on Fukashima (Nagasaki) to an almost Bryan Ferry-like suave on ‘The Rain’….Do seek out these burnished new/old sounds from one of San Francisco’s finest purveyors of Experimental Rock, the Mighty Chrome
http://disasteramnesiac.blogspot.com/2013/05/chrome-half-machine-from-the-sun-lost.html
Nervous Circuits Blogspot 4/13 “Their use of percussion, synths, and weird sound collages made for a bunch of amazing records that don’t sound like anyone else.”
Blurtonline.com – Fred Mills posted news story about album release 4/13
http://blurtonline.com/news/chrome-preps-key-reissue-of-7980-
Radio Weser. German radio and TV live interview and podcast on Expeditionen ins Klangreich 1/13
Bad Sounds Scandinavia Full feature interview: The History of Rock and Roll Through the Eyes of an Underground Legend, Part 1 an Interview with Helios Creed by Monet Clark: 1/13
Excerpts from HC’s longer answers:
When did first become aware of Rock and Roll?
Helios Creed: On the radio with Elvis Presley. You know "You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog" and all those old Elvis songs, and also with Bo Diddley. You could feel the fun. Music wasn’t very fun on the radio until then. I was 3 and 4 and we were in Southern California…These guys would come on the radio and my brother and I would get so excited we'd run around and around in circles in our underwear in the living room. Just that rocking sound made us want to move.
Question: What was your next major memory of Rock and Roll?
Helios Creed: I saw the original Ed Sullivan show with the Beatles in 1963. My 3 siblings and my Mom and Step Dad were all gathered in the living room to watch it…They were a mind blower and it just swept the country like fire…I knew they were changing things and that excitement was contagious. It was an explosion of culture, and the power they had over their followers…you just had to be there to witness how it began to change things. Music had political power…I was there for the whole history of the advent of rock and roll and I'm very honored to be a part of it.
Question: Who really impressed you musically then? [teenage years] There were songs on the radio like 'Talk Talk' by The Music Machine which was hip and that song 'Love That Dirty Water', but it was Jimi Hendrix that really inspired me….his modus operandi pushed me to become a great guitar player. The directions the Beatles were going in got really cool too. Then there was Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin. My mind was molded but the psychedelic greats of the day..I was addicted to music. I went to see everyone who came through Hawaii (we had moved there a few years before).
Question: You saw Jimi Hendrix live in Hawaii?
Helios Creed: Yeah I was about 18… I'll never forget it. Jimi comes out to the mic and you could have heard a pin drop it was so quiet even with 10,000 people there. And Jimi says "Its going to be loud, if you don't like it loud you better leave". And then he starts out with Voodoo Child really quietly, and when the drum and bass kicked in he leaped like a Gazelle and landed right on the one, and it got really loud!… He had some kind of power over everybody. Straight Chinese and straight Japanese people who were usually very conservative were jumping down from the balcony to rush the stage, it was the most powerful thing I had ever seen and heard.
Question: When did you see Black Sabbath?
Helios Creed: A little bit later, I did two hits of Orange Sunshine and a ton of Mescaline …It was the most amazing show for me… They inspired me and definitely showed me a version of what I wanted to do which was to be heavy; rock; compelling; and intense... and the loudness! I wanted to be loud! And there was something magnetic and attractive in their darkness too, but I didn't get enveloped in that although it has influenced me. Still I wanted to be psychedelic.
Question: How was the music scene in San Francisco in 1972?
Helios Creed: It was very disappointing. San Francisco's scene put me in space where I had had it with Hippies, and I'd had it with the Blues…
Question: How did feel about the early days of Punk? And was Punk influential to your music?
Helios Creed: Punk shows started being put on at the Mabuhay Gardens in 1976…Punk was the most fun era of my life. The Punk scene has an incredible energy and fire and edge! I saw shows all the time… Punk influenced me because it was hard and it was solid, but it wasn’t Heavy Metal. Heavy Metal fell into a really predictable, stupid and very boring things, whereas Punk’s guitar was fucked up and freer. Heavy Metal was formula. With Punk it was much more experimental and I could keep developing my sound and my approach to guitar from that place. It was a much better scene to be experimental and free in, but still hard…
The Seattle Stranger 11/12
“Innovative guitarist , of the most excellent avant-rock band , is asking fans to help fund the release of archival recordings he and fellow Chrome member Damon Edge laid down around the time they were cutting the classic albums Half Machine Lip Moves and Red Exposure (1979-1980).”
East Village Radio.com 11/12 “If you are a student of left-field rock, you surely cherish your Chrome records and wish there were more that feature late band founder Damon Edge. A new crowd-sourcing effort by the Chrome's torch-bearer, Helios Creed, seeks to do just that.”
Radio Valencia live interview and podcast with Helios Creed and Chrome special 1212/12
The Obelisk announcement of campaign to release The Lost Chrome Tracks 12/12
KVMR Nevada City, CA live in person interview and Chrome special with premier of Prophecy Podcast 12/12
Host Mikail Graham will be playing select tracks from the past 35 years of their career and some brand new tracks from the new upcoming album release plus an in-studio interview with legendary Chrome guitarist. Definitely a must hear show!
