Debut LP from New Jersey's own time-travelling synth wizard Com Truise repressed! Galactic Melt is like watching 80's sci-fi flicks with the TV turned off, a mind warp back to a time where computers where beige and video games where played on cartridges. It's not a complete nostalgia-fest tho, as Com Truise adds his own futuristic touch by way of drum programming and psychedelic sound design much in line with current chillwave trends i.e. Neon Indian, Twin Shadow, etc. (for which he has provided remix services for).

"For a brief moment, opener 'Terminal' subsumes you in warm, starry-eyed synth arpeggios, and then down the rabbit hole you go - from the keyed up, skyscraping machine love of 'VHS Sex' and 'Cathode Girls' to opuses like 'Air Cal' and 'Ether Drift' that sound like Doogie Howser's idea of the perfect prom song - mathy, forlorn, funky, and mighty in technical ambition. That they're all noticeably cinematic is, of course, by design - Haley envisioned Galactic Melt as 'a sort of film score - from the mind,' chronicling the lift and death of Com Truise, the world's first synthetic/robotic astronaut, from his creation and life on earth to his subsequent mission to a newly discovered galaxy called 'Wave 1.' Eventually, Truise becomes one with his newfound cosmos, like Pinocchio becoming a real boy, but in the nether regions of imaginary space. Haley says knowing when and how to complete such an opus was the hardest part of making the record, nevermind all the carefully synth programmed patches on his Sequential Circuits Split-8 or the three years of real life that transpired during its genesis. It's a world unto itself, a sci-fi bildungsroman of sorts, and most importantly, an awesome escape from the corporeal." - Ghostly

• black double vinyl pressing
• plays at 45RPM
• printed insert
• original release year: 2011
• music label: Ghostly International 2023

reviewed by Von Bee 08/2011