Com Truise – “Diffraction” (Singles Going Steady)

Chris Ingalls: Seth “Com Truise” Haley’s raison d’etre has always been spacey, crisp synth instrumentals that sound tailor-made for the soundtrack to “Halt and Catch Fire” — there’s obviously meticulous care involved in replicating the era of shoulder pads and pastels. “Diffraction” sounds a bit sunnier than previous Com Truise efforts, but that doesn’t lend it any less credibility or stop it from being an enjoyable listen. [7/10]

Pryor Stroud: Whirring to life like a creaky arcade machine plugged in for the first time in years, the latest from synthpop machinist Com Truise is a firing-on-all-cylinders rush of polyvalent retro-futurism, all light, air, and self-multiplying sparks jumping into being only to evaporate instantaneously as their siblings forge onward. It crackles, reaches white heat in places, but never ignites. Its dribbled 808’s are anarchically syncopated and its wobbly synth lines are so conventional that they almost resist criticism, but it all eventually numbs out, plateauing just when you want it to plunge over an edge. Kanye West, never straying from character but always from the script, recently rampaged in a tweet, “I’M SO HYPE RIGHT NOW EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED… HAVE YA’LL EVER SEEN TRON? THE END OF THE TRON WHERE EVERYTHING LIGHT UP!!!!” The hyper-capitalization here signifies an urgency that is chasing an ecstasy down — which is to say, Kanye screams out of the text, through it, to catch this “LIGHT” before it loses its effulgence. “Diffraction” stages an analogous chase: it’s a Light Bike straight out of Tron, frantically trying to reach its destination before the plug is pulled and everything goes dark. [6/10]

Ed Whitelock: Sounds like the soundtrack to a motivational PowerPoint presentation occurring in a hotel conference room just off the highway somewhere. [2/10]

Alexandra Fletcher: This makes me want to put my leg warmers on and rock a scrunchy-clad high pony in a dingy Bushwick basement. It’s the ’80s meets 2008 synthpop, really fun in the moment, but forgettable. Consistently danceable rhythm, but with an anticlimactic redundancy to the ebb and flow of the beat. [6/10]

Steve Horowitz: Despite the beat heavy rhythms, this is head music. There’s some action, but it feels stationary like one of the exercise bikes. Some people like to pedal while others just want to get somewhere. [5/10]

Emmanuel Elone: This track has a lot of flaws. It sounds like a bad retro version of eighties synthpop that has no emotion or passion whatsoever. Also, the electronic noises are too tinny and sharp to be enjoyable to listen to; the song is like a pencil that’s being jabbed in my ears. And, just like “Golden Gal”, this song is too repetitive and boring to be four minutes long. However, unlike the last song, which was actually fun to hear, “Diffraction” could actually induce a migraine or headache if played for too long. It’s just not a good song, in any way, shape or form. [2/10]

Chad Miller: The first minute or two aren’t spectacular, and I’m not sold on the instrumentation used at the two-minute mark. The first section has more success when it’s repeated at the end with stronger beats, but the track still just doesn’t grow into anything significant. [5/10]

SCORE: 4.71