Because this was also meant to be a part of the story where the music starts changing, he had taken inspiration from several acts including New Order and Prince to have a much broader range of tempos and styles in each track.

[5] Wave 1 decreases its tensions on "Subsonic", which goes through several "movements" of slow-building, evocative sounds, including a "hell of a squelchy bass", that the press release analogized to be "soundtracking" the creation of new stars.

[8] The Jamie xx-style[5] title track of Wave 1 calmly ends the EP as the lead melody drifts far away into several "zipping" sci-fi textures and "clustered percussion.

[1] On January 23, 2014, "Subsonic" premiered on the website of Spin magazine, which announced the EP's track list and a North American tour promoting the record that lasted from February 11 to March 15.

called the EP "looser, more focused and much more imaginative" that Com Truise's past work, writing that while the artist has yet to make "a truly transcendent piece of art, Wave 1 shows the young beatmaker in transition, fearlessly searching for his definitive sound.

"[15] Similarly, Sputnikmusic reviewer hyperion praised Wave 1 for making a unique new sound with the chillwave palette instead of having limits from the genre, assuming that it could've been the peak of the microgenre if the record's other songs were as good as "Valis Called (Control)" and "Subsonic".

[6] In more mixed reviews, Derek Staples, writing for the site Spectrum Culture, wrote that with Wave 1, the artist was starting to lose his "inventive edge" in trying to recreate the same sound of his past releases for nostalgic purposes.