Album Review: Space Dimension Controller / ‘Welcome to Mikrosector-50’ (R&S)

Space Dimension Controller Welcome to Mikrosector-50

★★★★☆

As it commandeers your stereo by way of a winking, semi-narrated creation of its own mythology slash travel brochure (the press release is a work of art), Welcome to Mikrosector-50 blinds you with its high Starfleet ranking. Its captain SDC spray-paints the opening scroll of Star Wars, while gorging on Total Recall and Demolition Man given some of the layovers of headset dialogue. However, the assignment settles as a varied, informed selection of electro, house and techno, nullifying the notion of Jack Hamill as just a jester using Saturn’s rings as a hula hoop.

The freaky-deakiness of sleaze-dipped, jumping jack funk nods to a certain pair of highly decorated Pubahs from the Motor City (“Mr. 8040’s Introduction,” the title track), warming up in becoming acquainted with the vessel’s controls, trailing serene stretches of the Milky Way with a bizarrely workable mix of cosmic disco and soft metal (“When Your Love Feels Like It’s Fading”). Fronted by a loverman whose raps, like a medallion swinging Zapp Brannigan, can never be taken seriously, the purring porn wah-wahs of “Quadraskank Interlude” prove that in outer space, no one can hear you knocking boots.

When game-time kicks in, roaming, Italo/Euro edged house, busy joystick-jerking acid (“Rising”), smooth grooving watching the world go by (“The Love Quadrant”) and chugging dub-disco beats, coordinate and validate Hamill’s flair, sense of humor and timing turning oddity into odyssey.

File under: Detroit Grand Pubahs, RL/VL, Jesse Boykins & Melo-X

Matt Oliver

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