Half Machine Lip Moves

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Half Machine Lip Moves
Chrome Half Machine Lip Moves.jpeg
Studio album by
Chrome
ReleasedMarch 15, 1979 (1979-03-15)
StudioAlamar (San Francisco, California)
Genre
Length35:55
Label Siren
Producer Damon Edge
Chrome chronology
Alien Soundtracks
(1977)		Half Machine Lip Moves
(1979)		 Read Only Memory
(1979)

Half Machine Lip Moves is the third studio album by American rock band Chrome. It was released on March 15, 1979 by Siren Records.

Contents

The album has been reissued several times on different labels: by Beggars Banquet Records in the United Kingdom in 1980, by Expanded Music in Italy in 1981, by Dossier Records in Germany in 1988, by Touch and Go Records in the United States in 1990, and by Cleopatra Records in the US in 2007 and 2012.

Music

The creation of Half Machine Lip Moves was helmed by Chrome members Damon Edge and Helios Creed. AllMusic describes the album's basic elements as "aggressive but cryptic performance and production, jump cuts between and in songs, judicious use of sampling and production craziness, and an overall air of looming science fiction apocalypse and doom." [1] It was described as post-punk by music writer Simon Reynolds. [2] NME journalist Andy Gill wrote that the album departed from earlier Chrome albums by featuring excessive use of "disconcerting sound-collage washes and interjections", as well as frequent "vocal fragmentation", with "very few cases of the one track/one riff syndrome" to be found on the songs. [3] It was cited as the "beginning of industrial rock". [4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [5]
Record Collector Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]

British magazine The Wire included Half Machine Lip Moves on its list of "100 (130) Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)". [7] In 2013, The New York Times wrote that "one of the things that makes the record so good is how intriguing the grooves and pockets and riffs are, how close the music theoretically seems to be getting to something more universally appealing—David Bowie's sound at that moment, for example." [8]

Legacy

In 1989, noise rock band the Jesus Lizard would cover "T.V. as Eyes" and "Abstract Nympho" on the single "Chrome" which was named after the band. [9]

Track listing

Side A
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."T.V. as Eyes" Helios Creed Damon Edge, Gary Spain2:19
2."Zombie Warfare (Can't Let You Down)"EdgeCreed, Edge5:47
3."March of the Chrome Police (A Cold Clamey Bombing)"EdgeEdge3:38
4."You've Been Duplicated"EdgeCreed, Edge2:38
5."Mondo Anthem"Creed, EdgeEdge, Spain3:33
Side B
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Half Machine Lip Moves"Creed, EdgeCreed, Edge5:21
2."Abstract Nympho"Creed, EdgeCreed, Edge3:35
3."Turned Around"CreedCreed, Edge2:01
4."Zero Time"CreedCreed, Edge3:04
5."Creature Eternal"Creed, EdgeCreed, Edge1:53
6."Critical Mass"EdgeCreed, Edge2:00

Personnel

Chrome
Additional personnel
Technical

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References

  1. 1 2 Raggett, Ned. "Half Machine Lip Moves – Chrome". AllMusic . Retrieved April 24, 2013.
  2. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (2009). Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 (reprint ed.). Faber and Faber. ISBN   9780571252275.
  3. ↑ Gill, Andy (July 17, 1979). "Chrome: Half Machine Lip Moves". New Musical Express. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Chrome at 40 the most influential band you've never heard". KQED.org. July 15, 2015. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
  5. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2002). "Chrome". The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th concise ed.). Virgin Books. ISBN   1-85227-923-0.
  6. ↑ "Chrome: Half Machine Lip Moves". Record Collector . p. 104. Half Machine Lip Moves remains the sonic masterpiece. Edge threw the kitchen sink into the production...
  7. ↑ "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)". The Wire . No. 175. September 1998.
  8. ↑ Ratliff, Ben (6 Oct 2013). "Chrome". The New York Times. p. AR20.
  9. ↑ "Bang, by The Jesus Lizard". The Jesus Lizard. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
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