By Jack

There is no shortage of net-based aesthetes producing electronica, but few dazzle like Seth Haley’s most famous guise Com Truise. Under the moniker, Haley has developed a whole world of his own, and catching him at one of his few UK dates, we caught a glimpse into that world.

After Haley’s ‘bench’ laden with synths and sequencers is dumped rather unceremoniously on stage, and some fiddling, the set opens with the funky descending bass of ‘Futureworld’. A perfect opener, and a phrase that perfectly describes Haley’s vision.

Though the set lacks some of Com Truise’s best (‘Cyanide Sisters’, ‘Flightwave’, ‘Memory’) this is a real performance. Haley is mostly incognito behind his decks but the smooth, flowing wave of effects and grooves, broken up only by enthusiastic applause (many people are here just for him) is compelling.

Diving deep into the Silicon Tare EP and peaking with a punchy run-through of ‘Propagation’ from Iteration, the set could have gone on another hour, if not for Haley’s position on the ballot this evening. We certainly wish it could have. In this world of space-age synthetic bass, glittering melodies and the crackle of VHS tracking, we were spectators to a vision of an imagined utopia of a 1980s that never was.