Where bought? Mod Lang in Ludlow, which is a great record shop for a quiet market town in rural England. The shop actually began in Berkeley, CA, but the owner moved (back?) to England and brought the name and ethos with him.
Sometimes I think that Chrome are my favourite 'post-punk' group, particular their late 70s to early 80s run of records before Damon fell in love with a French girl, moved to Europe, and became a bit of a tragic case. There's no direct antecedent what they did (Pere Ubu, maybe, but not really) and yet traces of their sound can be found in a lot of places in the 21st century. They're also completely non po-faced and decidedly not boring ever.
Their strange blend of kosmiche rhythms, whirling psychedelics, nihilist pose, and space-rock tangents are pretty far ahead of their time. I honestly believe that Bowie owes them some debt for the style on Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, where he got in a guy to play his guitar so it sounds like a synth. Which is exactly what Helios Creed does.
3rd From The Sun comes off the back of their two greatest records - Red Exposure and Blood on the Moon - and taken in that context seems a little bit of a slide; those records blend knife-edge tension with crazy noises whirling in all over the place and oddly danceable rhythms. Here the pace is a bit slower and Creed plays more like a cyborg rock god, huge chords that fragment in his effects chain, while Damon Edge is pushed a little further forward in the mix.
Some tunes, like 'Armageddon', take you on these long see-sawing journeys through an aural nuclear plant sung in the voice of the beast on the album cover. The feel is less 'decontamination suite disco' and more 'crypt of a mutant'. It's also hella consistent, never top rate Chrome, but reasonably high throughout.
Definitely a keeper. Got it to begin my Chrome collection, but the others yet have been harder to find.
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