Com Truise

For many fans, science fiction offers an escape from reality. For Seth Haley, it offered him an escape from his day job. The gleaming, retro-futurist electronica he records as Com Truise caught on with listeners so quickly that, just a year after his first EP under the alias, he had remixed the likes of Daft Punk and Neon Indian, released his debut album on the acclaimed Ghostly International label, and turned in his resignation as an art director in anticipation of an upcoming world tour. A former drum 'n' bass DJ, Haley has tried his hand at various production aliases in a variety of styles, but it wasn't until he adopted the persona Com Truise that he found his first real acclaim. Despite the cleverness of the name, Com Truise isn't some celebrity deconstruction or po-mo prank. The retro-futurist melancholy of the music soon gives the name a different resonance -- you start thinking of "Com" as in "intercom," and "Truise" as, perhaps, a star in a distant quadrant. His debut album, Galactic Melt, pays homage to '70s synthesizer music, '80s funk and Boards of Canada's woozy nostalgia for the same periods.