•
Rating:
THE REVIEW
San Francisco, late '70s. The "industrial" civilization is now a monstrously existing reality, progress begins to advance at a dizzying pace, the first personal computers are born, trust in machines increases immeasurably, the prevailing color is gray, the color of twilight, of the inertia born from the white of faith and the black of death. We are leaving the "flower power" period, and like all epochal changes, there is a climate of bewilderment, in one word, "alienation." A word much abused but incredibly pertinent in describing realities like this. The Chrome were children of this reality. Their music is the "drawing" of that reality. And like all respectable artists, they use their art as a means to express a state of mind, as an instrument of "avant-garde" (in the sense of looking ahead, beyond the immediate appearance, which is the true role of the intellectual).
Thus they created with Half Machine Lip Moves, not only one of the best albums in the history of rock but also a work tremendously important on a level of "historical testimony". With them (and even earlier with the English Throbbing Gristle), "industrial" music emits its first cries. And it could not be otherwise.
To express their discomfort, the Chrome produce a sound that is abnormal, monstrous, very little musical. Their pieces are collages of sounds assembled often randomly, using everything that can "sound," it doesn't matter how and why; the important thing is to disturb, to provoke a slow and inexorable cerebral neurosis, to lead the listener to flee from this heap of sonic debris. Within the album, one hears everything: acidic distortions, exhausting feedback, dissonances, "concrete" noises, treated voices, tortured and torturing electronics. The rhythm is often mechanical (a trademark of all the industrial to come), nervous, broken, with dizzying progressions and sudden pauses. Everything seems random (and often it is, considering many "digressions" were improvised at the time of recording), exhausting confusion that stuns. And in the end, it succeeds, well before the album is over.
Mission accomplished, the objective of Chrome was precisely this, to monstrously emphasize the situation they were living in, to lead the listener between presses, gears, pistons, and microchips, in such an "inhuman" and annoying way to slap him in the face, to vomit his reality on him. In our case "that" reality, "that" moment. As for our moment, it’s better to skip over it.
Loading comments slowly
Summary by Bot
Chrome's album Half Machine Lip Moves captures the alienation and industrial progress of late 1970s San Francisco. The band creates a challenging, avant-garde sound full of distortion, noise, and mechanical rhythms. As one of the earliest industrial rock albums, it stands as both an artistic statement and a historical testimony. The music deliberately unsettles listeners, reflecting the era's uneasy transition from flower power to a machine-driven world. Ultimately, it’s a landmark album that pushed musical boundaries and influenced the industrial genre.Tracklist Videos
Chrome
Chrome is an American experimental rock band formed in San Francisco in 1975 by Damon Edge; guitarist Helios Creed joined soon after. Their tape-mangled, electronics‑scarred fusion of punk and psychedelia helped shape early industrial and post‑punk, with landmark releases Alien Soundtracks (1977) and Half Machine Lip Moves (1979).05 Reviews
Other reviews
By Battlegods
There is no room for melody, harmony, bridges, or solos. There is only a compact sonic magma that simultaneously emits chameleonic nuances.
In 1979, they release 'Half Machine Lip Moves,' destined to remain a masterpiece and symbol of this excellent era.
By Armand
Chrome’s music reinforces the collapse of all certainties by assembling a collage of monstrous fecal smears, pasting a rear-end where the mouth should be.
The proto-industrial acid experimental punk noise concocted evolves into disappearance in the non-acceptance that most of us are crap... and to crap we will return.
