While the '80s-influenced synth sounds, rubbery basslines and sci-fi flavors that inform Haley's later work are in full effect here, they're assembled in manners different enough to make this both a fine record in its own right, and also a fascinating insight into the development of the distinctive Com Truise sound. It also finds the producer exploring a number of facets of that sound, from 8-bit influenced experimentalism to distinctly danceable beats -- often within the confines of the same track.
"Controlpop", for instance, announces itself with an intro that sounds like a Commodore 64 being hit with a hammer, but resolves into slow liquid synthfunk that recalls Galactic Melt highlights like "VHS Sex" and "Flightwave." Its slow-burning dance vibe is shared by several other tracks -- "Colorvision" and "Yxes", amongst others -- while elsewhere, Haley drops the tempo and channels the psychedelic cosmic meanderings of forebears like Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh. "Dreambender" sounds like it should be soundtracking a voyage into uncharted digital innerspace, while "Video Arkade" cruises along on a woozy rising-and-falling synthline that's like drifting on some sort of virtual reality rollercoaster. Like all Haley's work, it's like stepping into a strange, digital parallel world -- a place constructed out of sounds both immediately familiar and yet somehow rendered thoroughly fresh, and a place that's worth staying for quite some time.
