Chrome

[Dirk Funk]

I have been pretty obsessed with Half Machine Lip Moves by Chrome of late. Technically the record sounds like shit, but I can't stop listening to it. I love the blown out drum sound on "TV as eyes" and record has some of the weirdest guitar sounds. Does anyone have any info about this record? Did they record it themselves?

[radiantbrian]

that record blew my mind when i first heard it. there was nothing like that stuff in the late 70s (or now for that matter). i guess some people would say that the record is completely 'shitty' sounding, but one has to appreciate the left-field production techniques. i remember reading some old interview with damon edge where he said something about recording the vocals to one song with a ghetto microphone plugged through about 4 distortion pedals played through a 6" Sears amp at full volume.. so yeah, that gives you an idea about the mindset behind that record. that said, the records were obviously self recorded.

i also love the drum sound to 'tv as eyes'. and almost all of the songs have vocal sounds that still scare the hell out of me.

[The Scum]

Half Machine Lip Moves is a favorite of mine, too. It's got the best balance of the really freaky stuff from Alien Soundtracks, and some of the more rocking stuff they got into later. Beware of any albums that say "Featuring Damon Edge" on the cover, because they aren't the same Chrome!

I think a lot of that stuff was done at home, on a 4 track machine. The sound collages were done by Edge, taking snippets of synth, stuff off the TV, etc, and running them through some varispeed/splice insanity.

Somewhere I heard that the marimba-like sound on You've been Duplicated was some sort of homemade drum machine, like an Altair controlling a homemade twin-t oscillator. They called the contraption John Cyborg.

Helios Creed has been doing the same kinda stuff ever since then. Last time I saw him touring, he was playing a Gibson SG with a large pile of stompboxes.

Byron Jacquot