Helios Creed
Galactic Octopi
Transparency
Massimo Marchini

After another four years of meditative silence the former member of Chrome returns with an album of the highest order. Influences of punk, psychedelic, electronica and even a scent of the San Francisco that very much refuses to die, not to say a whole era. Visionary guitarist Helios joined the band of Damon Edge for their second album, Alien Soundtracks, which acted as swan song for the hippy era. One can detect many Chrome elements in this album even if they are decidedly immersed in today’s retro mood. Rhythmic, haunting electronica, for a dive into the past, but only leading to a “return to the future”, following the recipe for Chrome’s Subterranean Modern as Helios Creed would have it reconfigured. In XCIII chants and litanies in shreds and long notes more than a bit distorted, while Terra Firma Thurma seems out of the playbook of Residents rather than Chrome, who in turn appear resuscitated in Red Chopper with its Hedrixian, lysergic guitar solo and surely one of the album’s most remarkable tracks alongside Stranger in the Manger, another song dominated by a postpsychedelic guitar of the refined order. Helios is revealed as a master of the Industrial sound of the early eighties that symbolized a revolution in music, and this album is without a doubt one of the best he has made. And not without a healthy helping of nostalgia.