[Royal Oak]

Jack Hamill can be forgiven for his cosmically comical references, from the outer-planetary names he gives his music to the cover art that looks like it was beamed direct to Earth some time in the early 80’s. He can be forgiven these things because it doesn’t hide any of his incredible talent, which becomes very clear upon first listening to one of his releases. The young producer (barely nudging twenty years, I believe) has only two previous credits to his Space Dimension Controller handle, though one of those, Unidentified Flying Oscillator, is a full length foray into spaced out electro (available here for free). He has also recorded earlier, more experimental, downbeat work under the name RL/VL. His new EP for Royal Oak carries some of those influences but leans more towards deep, atmospheric house and Detroit techno.

Those nods to Detroit can mostly be found on “Cosmo30 Travel Duration,” which sends out sonar tracer bullets, eventually landing a direct hit on some funked up Herbie Hancock-styled keys. The bass notes work wonderfully off those keys, creating a deep, body popping groove. Hamill heads further into the land of space boogie with the title track, dropping the tempo slightly and giving those hot vintage synths a real workout. There is a strong Detroit influence here too, though with both tracks here the familiar elements we recognize as being of a Detroit-y nature occur through the melodies rather than the percussion, which carries the simplistic automation of robotic, electro funk. Closing track “BBD Alignment” is of immeasurable deepness and feeling. At first it marred the rest of the EP for me as I was so focused on it, quite happy to pass over the others to return to its dreamy embrace. A lot of the time when I listen to music I am anticipating what is coming next, or taking note of what the producer has done to effect certain sounds. Listening to “BBD Alignment,” none of those thoughts entered my head, it was simply a matter of completely feeling the music.

Detroit wunderkind Kyle Hall’s remix of the title track, true to his form, sounds unlike any of his other productions. He keeps the majority of the melodies, propels things into a higher gear and straps on a more substantial kick, hollowing out the bass line in the process. For all its inherent sense of funk within the melodies, there is a tweaked out, manic feel to the track that will probably divide opinion. For me this EP is made by the three incredible original tracks, which all point to a very promising career for Jack Hamill.