Chromatics

From punk to Italo

Chromatics began in 2001 as the solo project of Adam Miller, whose earlier Seattle band The Vogue had become Soiled Doves; the new group absorbed most of that band. Their first album, Chrome Rats vs. Basement Rutz (2003, Gold Standard Laboratories), was a lo-fi, punk-leaning record, after which most members left to form Shoplifting. Plaster Hounds followed in 2004, and around 2005 the band reinvented itself as a quartet of Miller, Ruth Radelet, Johnny Jewel and Nat Walker, with a sound that turned toward Italo disco. Jewel, who also plays in Glass Candy and with Walker in Desire and the instrumental project Symmetry, produced the records and ran the Italians Do It Better label.

The Nite EP (2006) was on Troubleman Unlimited, and Night Drive, also titled Original Motion Picture Soundtrack IV, was released on August 28, 2007 on Italians Do It Better. It was recorded in summer 2007 at Suite 304 in Portland and produced by Jewel, and includes a cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill". Pitchfork gave it 8.3 and AllMusic four stars.

Kill for Love

Kill for Love (March 26, 2012) was recorded between May 2007 and August 2011 in Houston, Portland and Montreal, and is 77:33 long. Jewel said it began as 36 tracks cut to 17. It opens with a cover of Neil Young's "Into the Black", reached number four on the US Heatseekers chart and has Metacritic's 80. Pitchfork's Marc Hogan wrote of some of the most engrossing synth-pop songs so far this year, and Drowned in Sound's Sean Adams called it a modern masterpiece. Pitchfork ranked it eighth among the albums of 2012.

They played the Chanel spring and summer 2013 show in Paris at Karl Lagerfeld's invitation, and opened for the xx at the Hollywood Bowl in September 2013. Dear Tommy was announced in December 2014 and is unreleased. Later releases were Cherry (deluxe, 2017), the Camera EP (2018), Closer to Grey (October 2, 2019) and Faded Now (2020).

Screen and end

Their music has been used in Drive, Taken 2, Lost River, The Perfection and television shows including Bates Motel, Gossip Girl, Mr. Robot and Riverdale. Drive's composer Cliff Martinez was hired to imitate the style of Jewel's bands Chromatics and Glass Candy. On May 21, 2017 they performed "Shadow" at the Roadhouse in the premiere of the Twin Peaks revival. On August 10, 2021 the band announced a breakup that excluded Jewel, whose representative told Pitchfork he would continue through Italians Do It Better.