Album Review: Wave 1 [EP] by Com Truise

Review Summary: the com truise we've been waiting to hearToday is the age of the microgenre, and unfortunately New Jersey's Com Truise has been unfairly tied to one that has more or less done him a bit of a disservice. Chillwave (or god forbid, “indietronica”) has been almost ubiquitously pervaded by acts that are content in riding the fashionable waves of retroism that seem to be all the rage today without the least bit of sincerity or interest in the music they make. Analog synth tones (probably from a VST) and female vocal samples abound, the “synthpop born anew” fashion trend seems to be more interested in the prerogative effects of music rather than the music itself, which to anyone who doesn't also listen to music for the same reasons comes off as a little more than annoying, and wholly useless.

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After the 2011 release of Galactic Melt, Seth Haley compiled previously unreleased Com Truise material for In Decay, broadened his résumé of remix work, and contributed to the Adult Swim Singles Program. His half-hour Wave 1 EP supplies more of the robust, wide-eyed synth pop/funk for which he has been known, albeit with a few slight tweaks. It leads with "Wasat," a too-brief sliver of an introduction at two minutes, which nonetheless leaves an instant and lasting impression.

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In 2011, Seth Haley's Com Truise couldn't have been more of-the-moment. A vintage-synth freak with a nostalgic moniker diving headlong into the sounds of 1983? In that long, hazy comedown from 2009's summer of chillwave, Haley was practically popping a wheelie on the zeitgeist. He took full advantage, too, offering up the superb Cyanide Sisters EP and the almost-as-good Galactic Melt LP in the same calendar year.

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When it was announced before the film’s 2010 release that Daft Punk would be composing the score for Tron: Legacy, fans of the franchise and the band alike knew that they had something to look forward to. The robotic duo couldn’t have found a more suitable film to flex electronic on, and the group’s final product was a relative masterpiece compared to the film. Seth Haley’s alter ego, Com Truise, was featured on the Tron: Legacy Reconfigured remix album, proving that he too has the capacity to provide a lush set of sounds more than suited to sci-fi source material.

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There’s plenty of sci-fi synth about at the moment – big and billowing soundtrack-style music that pairs euphoric electronic washes and ’80s drums with sounds that recall the Flight Of The Navigator spacecraft. New Jersey producer Seth Haley, who goes by the alter ego Com Truise, has so far distinguished himself from the pack with a jittery sense of experimentalism, his debut album ‘Galactic Melt’ taking nu-disco sounds and investing them with keen IDM smarts. Sadly, ‘Wave 1’ is a more disjointed, disorienting listen.

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