There’s a lot of mystery that accompanies production unit Ailes, but what’s for sure is that they have grand ambitions. Bolstered by hot-button social issues (including COVID-19 induced crises in foreign worker dormitories and a pressure-induced student suicide in 2016), producer trio T-8, Kiari, and Syaf first came together over the mission of wielding music as critical commentary and a reaction to social injustice.

That being said, the way they began on this musical mission was pretty strange. Masking themselves in helmets, they began with the oddball grooves of Paint My Shoes Red, where they whispered a rather straightforward allusion to the 2016 suicide in question: “Got me feeling like the rat race / So much pressure I can't think straight / My brain's trying to evacuate / Can I hold out till I graduate? / Maybe they'll excavate the reason for society's high sucide rate,” they sang in their barely-veiled commentary on urban and academic pressure.

With its toy-like synths, laid-back basslines and funk touches, they probably intended it to be stylishly dark via juxtaposition – only for its lackluster lyricism and overwrought nature to render it supremely awkward, nevermind it feeling comical and inappropriate for the serious matter at hand. Then, in an even more confusing move, they subsequently followed with Miko, an aimless 4-minute long downtempo instrumental which lingered on a lounge bassline to nowhere. What was the messaging there? How do the chilled-out funk stylings make sense? From a musical standpoint, things didn’t quite match up with their urgent mission.

On their latest entry however, the collective switch gears into something much more sonically apt for their grim inspirations. With their explicit lyricism falling flat, it seems like using sonic metaphor works ten times better. With Reboot, there’s a level of detail and progression here that their previous works missed: opening with hard-hitting beats peppered with fragmented digital glitchwork, the track immediately makes an impact, unlike its underwhelmingly subtle predecessors. Upon its first minute, a looping piano figure enters, colored with lush pad synths worthy of JRPG soundtracks this side of Square Enix. As the track traverses hopeful and suspended modalities, the beatscapes re-enter, intertwining with keys and synths that fragment into glissandos and arpeggiated runs, resulting in a wondrous little moodscape that works well as a palette-cleansing prelude. With equal touches of Serph-esque electronica and soundtrack-like energy, Reboot feels like an entrance to a post-apocalyptic realm, something much closer in spirit with the worlds they originally described to fight. It’s a great sign that shows the collective expanding their horizons, but also serves as their first steps towards coherent world-building, something the band failed to achieve before.

There are really still a lot of questions to ask about the collective. How does the band intend to reflect their grand inspirations? What’s the band’s process? What do Ailes want to be musically? But as far as clues go, Reboot might just be a much-needed reset for the group’s intentions, and it’s definitely an exciting one.

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