Although hardly kindred spirits another of my old favourites, Chrome (or at least surviving member Helios Creed) are currently engaged in re-acquiring unreleased material from their heyday (79-80) for release later in the year, under the somewhat clunky title "Half Machine From The Sun"

It's a PledgeMusic venture, with the required total already having been reached. Unlike Wire, the material isn't being used as a jumping off point for an entirely new project, but for anybody who rated Half Machine Lip Moves, Red Exposure and Read Only Memory, it has intrigue value.

love Chrome, thanks for this news, Ian B ... "Although hardly kindred spirits another of my old favourites, Chrome" -- are you saying that you and Chrome are not kindred spirits, or Chrome and Wire? If the latter, I'm not sure they're not kindred spirits ... maybe we can ask Colin what he thinks (thought) of them?

cc - I was meaning Chrome and Wire (although I understand Damon Edge studied under John Cage at Cal.Arts so there's the art school link). RS - depends what you mean by first couple of Chrome records; the first album - The Visitation - bears almost no relationship to what came after, and I think is largely if not disowned then regarded as something from another different project - but what came after was Alien Soundtracks and Half Machine Lip Moves which I've loved (particularly the latter) for a long time. Stevethehouse - not sure what part pof the catalog you revisited, but it's definitely the caase that after Damon Edge left for Europe in the mid-80s, taking the Chrome name with him, the quality control disappeared pretty quickly - there are some truly awful records under the Chrome moniker. Some of the stuff on Half Machine Lip Moves (title track, You've Been Duplicated, Abstract Nympho, TV As Eyes/Zombie Warfare) still stand up for me - and occassionally throws forth something I'd missed in many repeated listens. The single New Age (from Red Exposure) is a bizarre statement of intent and I Am The Jaw (from Read Only Memory) is a delight.

The slight worry is that the new project is nothing more than material that was deemed not worthy of putting before the listening public back in the day, rather than just the victim of "there's only so much space on an album" which is how it's being peddled.

I think The Visitation has its moments, but mostly a bit too sun-drenched West Coast - no menace or aggression.

Did you ever hear The Chronicles? That has it's moments. And I agree about the post Helios period. Much of it is terrible.

As for the one track so far revealed, it's not brilliant, but I suppose much will depend on the post production. (I pledged too).