- Jack Hamill, AKA Space Dimension Controller, does nostalgia really well. He also likes storytelling, science fiction and acting like a kid. You can tell as much just by listening to Orange Melamine, the first record he ever made. Recorded in early 2008, when Hamill was 18, it predates 2009's excellent Love Quadrant and the one just before it on Acroplane, Unidentified Flying Oscillator. It even predates Hamill's concept of Space Dimension Controller and the self-perpetuating musical cosmos it has become.
That points to another thing about Hamill: he likes to role play. Space Dimension Controller is a character Hamill invented for himself, and over the years, a fantastical world has been built around that persona. Hamill doesn't dress the part like he used to, but he still takes on the identity. Orange Melamine, however, removes all of that to put the man himself on the stand. The unveiling makes for music that's open and honest, if a little crude. Hamill made the record with a recording process that bounced the music back and forth between his DAW and tape machine. It leaves a smeared and grainy thumbprint, while also adding a sort of long lost feel. Listening through Orange Melamine is like finding an old suitcase stuffed with someone's discarded personal treasures—in other words, old, forgotten music newly discovered.
SDC has never sounded of our time, but Orange Melamine is more obviously grounded in the past. Albums like Welcome To Mikrosector-50 and The Pathway To Tiraquon6 assimilated dance music history into something else, not exactly a new aesthetic but definitely a distinct one. That's not the case here. Orange Melamine bares the hallmarks of Hamill's Warp and ambient inspirations all too clearly. Tracks like "West G Cafeteria," "Multipass" and "Los Locos" directly evoke the spirit of Rephlex and IDM pioneers like Autechre and Aphex Twin. But that's fine—the music feels comforting, familiar. It instantly triggers memories of bygone times, which is exactly the point here. As a collection of nascent bedroom experiments, Orange Melamine is a charming, listenable look into the origins of Space Dimension Controller.
Tracklist01. Multicoloured Evolving Sky
02. The Bad People
03. West G Cafeteria
04. Volvo Estate
05. Leader-1
06. Scollege Campus
07. Gullfire
08. Melting Velcro Shoes
09. Adventures in Slime and Space
10. Multipass
11. Today There Is No School
12. Los Locos
13. Velvet Gentleman