Com Truise: Galactic Melt Review

If the current trend of 80’s aping, dark retro synth is already grating at you, it might be time to click on another review.  Com Truise have no desire to placate you.  Either you are with them and their 8-bit, video game on ecstasy soundtrack, or you are not.  Like Ford and Lopatin on steroids, Galactic Melt is a bold statement that is going to be right in the wheelhouse of some, while others (I am looking at you guy who is excited Superchunk are back together) while find nothing but cheesy grooves and  annoying beeps and clicks.

After a noisy introduction, the group waste little time laying their sound out as clearly and concisely as they possibly could. “VHS Sex” has a moment where it sounds a little like it is going to be a remake of “Let’s Go Crazy” before descending into the bass rattling synths and crisp drums that center the LP.  From the smooth synth stabs of “Cathode Girls” to the deep synth guttural moans of “Glawio” to the  spaced out grooves of “Flightwave,” Galactic Melt is an all-encompassing trip through backward reaching instrumental synths.  I almost wonder if they would capture more attention (or at least the attention Ford and Lopatin are receiving) if they had splashed some easy on the ears vocals over the tracks to make them even more pop (not saying that I would want that).  Without lyrical content, they seem like Justice if Justice had decided that copying Daft Punk wouldn’t be “retro” enough.  The jams are thick and full of life, but I suspect their ear candy melodies are going to be derived by some as too simplistic and by others as too repetitive, which is too bad, as the album is a sugar rush of beats and synths for those willing to dive in.

Com Truise, from their name to their song titles (referencing VHS tapes) to their singular sound, seem destined to be a band on the extremes.  Some will love their throwback sound and kitschy aura, others will wish they had the power to reach through the speakers and punch them in the face.  The problem with a band who are instantly so polarizing is that it leaves little room for a realistic assessment of what Galactic Melt really is, which is an average to solid record of korg centered pop jams that can be a really fun, heady trip.  This record is not going to change the world, but it is a good album that picks one area and finds a way to do that sound really well, which is never a bad thing.