The brilliant San Francisco psych/industrial/space-rock/sci-fi band Chrome has been reactivated again.

Formed in 1975 by drummer Damon Edge, the band really came into its own with the addition of Guitarist Helios Creed for their second album, 1977’s Alien Soundtracks. Straddling pre- and post-punk turf, Chrome used the collage and cut-up techniques of industrial music and the heavily effected guitars of the most brain-fried cosmic acid rock to forge a massively tweaked sound that’s still tough to pin into any single rock genre. (God knows I’ve tried, but nobody will accept my insistence that “sounds like a bunch of awesome giant-ass ‘60s TV space robots with eye lasers that grudge-fuck phaser pedals” is a genre, and so Chrome remains orphaned.)
 

 
Edge and Creed would be the band’s core creative duo for four more LPs through 1982 (Half Machine Lip Moves and Red Exposure are especially recommended, as is the recently issued “lost” LP Half Machine From The Sun), after which Edge moved to France, leaving Creed behind and forming a new Chrome lineup that continued until his death in 1995. Afterward, Creed, having enjoyed an extremely fruitful solo career, reassumed the Chrome name, releasing new albums between 1997 and 2002.

But though someone in a band called “Chrome” was making records from 1975-2002, the last dozen years have seen no releases of new material from the band, until now. Feel It Like a Scientist, a 2XLP of new Chrome music, will be released in August 2014. Per Creed from recent interviews:

“I have the best band put together, finally.”

“The album is coming out…it’s how I’ve always wanted Chrome to sound. It’s what I always imagined Chrome could be post Damon, ya know. I’ve been able to take it to the next level.”

 

 
Having heard Feel it Like a Scientist, I have to agree—this feels music like “the next level.” I’ve never been super crazy about any Chrome material that didn’t have both Creed and Edge, but this stuff is worthy. We can’t share the entire LP with you, but we’re sure you’ll enjoy the song “Prophecy,” making its streaming debut today here on DM.