It was that rain that’s so torrential it makes you look ridiculous being outside, even with an umbrella. And especially with a broken pink one.
But missing the final CHROMA launch to stay dry would be hard to justify later.
Bicep’s CHROMA send-off with Goodhood didn’t feel like a pop-up so much as a mislaid afterparty, a small East London shop floor drafted in with JuJu’s to close the book on two years of hyper-designed club experiences.
Once through the queue, Goodhood kept their calm retail space, but the distant rumble signalled BICEP had other plans. Free CHROMA-branded drinks circulated constantly, cans and cups wrapped in the same visual language as the records, like the label insisting that even the booze should sit inside the artwork.
In among the minimalist clothes rails and shuddering walls, CHROMA 000 sat on a central table looking like the final artefact of a very considered experiment: two 140g black vinyl, bespoke Terrain6 six-way hyper-colour sleeves, translucent brown Mylar wrap, and a neon acrylic sheet laser-etched with that now-familiar glyph system. Yes, there was that much detail. It read less like a standard compilation and more like a physical archive of the whole CHROMA ecosystem compressed into one object.
Limited-edition merch wrapped around it, folding David Rudnick’s sharp typography and Zak Norman’s AV language into pieces that could slip straight into Goodhood’s usual racks without breaking character. You could watch people trying to decide whether they were buying a design system, a memory of the night, or just proof that they’d been there when the label finally exhaled.
The system seemed triumphantly overspec’d for the square footage, throwing low-end through the floorboards until just standing there felt like being dragged into the set, whether you wanted to dance or not. There was no safe zone to hide in; move to the back and the bass followed.
There was one thing for sure, it must have certainly been in the back of everyone’s mind that CHROMA was drawing in. It was one of the final times to absorb the creations in its more intimate yet assertive moments to date.
For a project that has run “from Acid to Alkaline” across singles, world tours and festival slots, ending a chapter in a cramped east London bar, in the rain, with free branded drinks, restless flooring and a stack of limited vinyl felt weirdly correct. No speeches, no fireworks – just a room pushed a bit too hard in every direction, which is exactly what CHROMA has been doing all along.
