Com Truise - Galactic Melt

Ghostly

Com Truise, the irreverent moniker of New Jersey based designer/producer Seth Haley, brings us his first full length LP after last year’s free ‘Cyanide Sisters’ EP. That induced a swath of shoddy journalism as his music was clumsily shoe-horned into the now been-and-gone ‘chill-wave’ fad. Displaying a much greater clarity & mastery of production than any of his supposed contemporaries, ‘Galactic Melt’ is in thrall to the 80’s, awash with italo-esque synths, funk basslines and a BPM that never threatens to go above 100. Led by an acute sense of melody and wandering synth lines, the album could easily be supplanted into a movie of the same era but while it flirts with the past, it doesn’t feel like a pastiche.

Opener ‘Terminal’ sets the tone as arpeggiated synths & vocoded vocal samples crescendo in a beatless track that Vangelis could easily have lost down the back of sofa around the time of ‘Blade Runner’. Likewise, ‘VHS Sex’ sets an early highlight as a rudimentary drum beat and bass line drive one of the album’s more upbeat tracks forward.

There’s time for reflective mood as well, as ‘Cathode Girls’ threatens to break from the shackles of the dilatory album tempo only to be reined in, creating a sense of tension when other producers may have cut loose. The bass of “Brokendate” pulses and throbs behind a mournful lead line that could have a Philip K. Dick robot in tears whilst ‘Ether Drift’ does just that, gliding along to the accompaniment of oscillating instrumentation.

An inevitable comparison is to near-neighbours Ford & Lopatin, although one distinct difference is the space Haley gives his productions, showing a deft talent for ebb & flow. On a critical note, the album doesn’t veer off the slow-beat italo path and after repeated listens may prompt some aural fatigue. Despite this, Haley deserves praise for the level of interest he’s instilled into these ten instrumental songs. If treated as a compilation to cherry-pick tracks from however, ‘Galactic Melt’ has much to offer and let’s hope this gives him the confidence to branch out with his sound in future… and drop the name.

Paul Fanning