Com Truise
In Decay

THE REVIEW

One of the things that amuse me most today is the accumulation of labels and genres to describe things a priori that wouldn't need them. I understand the need to navigate the immense jungle of artists that the internet has made accessible to everyone. However, it's amusing, especially in online magazines, to read a string of four genres for any run-of-the-mill record: one to describe the musician's attitude , one for the influences they display, one for the scene they belong to, and if applicable, one for what they actually play. Assuming it makes sense to talk about attitude in a world where irony and posturing often make it pointless to ask "if one believes in it or not," to look for a scene when the internet exists, and to wonder if there are still defined and closed genres in 2015. Meanwhile, the mainstream press, especially the Anglo-Saxon one, tackles the "proliferation of useless bullshit" subject by fomenting interesting and not at all far-fetched controversies like "Are other journalists claiming that FKA Twigs is R'n B just because she's black, while she actually sings other stuff?" Let's be clear: I'm just capturing the status quo, I don't want to start a debate or wage a battle against windmills, I'm not saying that all this is wrong or that things were better when we were happy with nothing. However, I am saying that these mental exercises often lead nowhere (at best) or lead us to attentively listen to horrendous crap just because some wretch tried to cover them in gold at all costs. The debacle is, after all, a happy island in a sea of fluff and headaches, and there are places out there where an unwritten rule dictates that we must talk about everything surrounding an album but not about what it truly contains. Perhaps because one should actually listen to the album, play it, and enjoy it.

Right now, I want to relax, and I'm listening to In Decay by the talented Com Truise, a guy who lives in New Jersey and makes electronic music. Is it necessary to evoke the term synthwave to know it's full of '80s synths but not from the '80s but rather from 2012? Is it necessary to read synth funk to know it's full of groovy fat funk basslines but it's all electronic music? Perhaps the chillwave label helps to know we're listening to something calm and relaxing, discreet but neither trivial nor crude and flashy, useful for both attentive listening or as background music? Outside of music, what tells us more about what we will find inside In Decay is the cover. Those angles and color combinations bring to mind the usual '80s and early '90s, even though back then that stuff was more likely found in SIP phones, Commodore 64 cases, and TV show intros than on album covers. Stuff from today played by people today borrowing pieces of yesterday to create something for today. So no, no mental exercises, no pointless revivals, and no garishness. Here there's just something calm that I like to listen to while I mind my own business.