The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Imagine if Tom
Cruise were a musician: what kind of music would he play? Pop songs so sweet
that the enamel would burst off your teeth upon hearing them? Or maybe patriotic
country rock would be more up the actor’s alley. One thing is for sure, it
definitely wouldn’t sound anything like Seth Haley’s music, better known in the
musical world as Com Truise – a spoonerism of the actor’s name.

Having tried his
hand at the electronic genre, Intelligence Dance Music (IDM) under numerous
other monikers, Com Truise’s shot at fame came after he contributed to the TRON:
Legacy film score. Moving on from IDM to chill wave, he currently surfs the
wave of success created before him by Neon Indian, Panda Bear and Ariel Pink,
among others.

In Decay is not so much a
second album as it is a collection of rarities and B-side tracks; unless you’re
a die-hard Com Truise fan you will find plenty of new material here to discover.
Also, for a set of tracks that were not originally made to fit on a single album,
In Decay sounds remarkably coherent.

Most of the
material that ended up on In Decay was recorded well before the release
of Com Truise’s debut album, Galactic Melt, and the bulk of the songs
are surprisingly slower and less danceable than those on his previous effort. In
Decay is an atmospheric, put-on-in-the-background kind of album. It’s
something you listen to after a good night out, not quite the sort of tunes
that would get you in the mood to tear up the dance floor.

Despite all the
songs being heavily dipped in 80s synths, with almost all of them revolving
around a repetitive structure, In Decay is not entirely without
surprises. In ‘Open’, Com Truise sounds like Boards of Canada shaking hands with
a stoned version of New Order, while ‘Klymaxx’ could be an Aphex Twin track
remixed by Autechre.

The overall
airiness of the synthesizers that Haley carefully constructs throughout In
Decay create a sound best suited to score classic sci-fi films such as Futureworld,
Tron or Metropolis. Come to think of it, the album would also
make a pretty good soundtrack to an ‘Introduction to Scientology’ video. Maybe
Tom and Com should join forces after all.