Half Machine Lip Moves 1979 Album

Chrome

For all intents and purposes, Chrome becomes a duo with this record, even though Gary Spain played bass on a few tracks. But now they have free rein, and in this anything-goes bout they do not compromise a thing. Creed's guitar slash which opens "TV As Eyes" comes ripping through your speakers like a wave of dinosaurs and has to be one of the most hair-raising sounds in music ever, bar none. It's weird to pigeonhole the music here as industrial or any other genre - simply put, I call it "Chrome music" because I have never heard anyone either intentionally sound like this, or do it by accident! Even on the slower tracks there's a desperate, manic sort of tension that's hard to ignore, as if you're trapped in some kind of post-apocalyptic maze with a clock counting down against you. Edge's incessant, trash-can banging which serves as drumming matches perfectly with Creed's angular guitar lines and riffs, which are dastardly dark mood-wise, but nothing at all to do with blues. This is definitely one of those punk/psych documents which not only defies categorization but also manages to elude discovery to this very day. Which makes it a favorite of mine, of course!