Chrome

Emerging from the American post-punk scene, the band Chrome pioneered industrial music and the noisier aspects of rock. As a student at the University of the Arts in San Francisco, multi-instrumentalist Damon Edge (born Thomas Wisse, guitar, keyboards, drums, vocals, production) was interested in experimental music and how to combine electronics and rock. Backed by equally versatile musicians Gary Spain, John Lambdin and Mike Low, in 1976 he formed the group Chrome, which recorded an acid-rock-influenced debut album, The Visitation, for its own Siren label, failing to win over Warner Bros. Without Low but with Helios Creed, the follow-up Alien Soundtracks (1977), deemed too radical to illustrate a film, took sound research even further, mixing recording techniques between loops, collages and stacked layers of sound. It contributed to Chrome's cult status, and he continued in an unexplored industrial vein on Half Machine Lip Moves (1979). Signed to the Beggars Banquet label, the band, whose changes became frequent, even including Shakin' Street singer Fabienne Shine, spent the 1980s exploring its concept on a dozen albums, being recognized as a forerunner, sometimes less audaciously but still creatively on Red Exposure (1980) and 3rd Stone from the Sun (1982). With the untimely death of Damon Edge on August 11, 1995, Creed became the sole master on board, continuing the musical legacy on Retro Transmission (1997) and subsequent releases, which were more sparse due to his own career. These included Ghost Machine (2002), Feel It Like a Scientist (2014), Techromancy (2017), Scaropy (2021) and Blue Exposure (2023).

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