Galactic Melt

Galactic Melt is Seth Haley's first album of all-new material for Ghostly International, following the label's expanded reissue of Cyanide Sisters and a three-track single. It offers more bent fusions of synth funk, synth pop, and Italo disco -- hypnotically torpid, bass-heavy instrumentals that tend to be as tautly constructed as pop songs. As with Cyanide Sisters, there are no obvious highlights or low points. The moods the tracks evoke range from creeping menace to a kind of bewildered joy (the latter typically whenever gleaming synthesizer melodies are in play). Like fellow travelers Games/Ford & Lopatin, Haley's output can be enjoyed in one-track doses or complete immersion, and it often inspires YouTube users to upload unofficial videos incorporating fuzzy, dreamlike images from early- to mid-`80s television and film clips. ~ Andy Kellman