Russell E.L. Butler - The Home I'd Build for Myself and All My Friends (2018)

In a recent interview with Bay Area music journalist Marke Bieschke, Russell Butler speaks on the inspiration behind their debut album, The Home I'd Build For Myself And All My Friends, released November 15 via San Francisco label Left Hand Path: "The album attempts to set out an idealistic space for the community, a space to dream in this frantic, late capitalist system, and feel what freedom and transcendence would be like. What does it look like when everyone has a home? What does it look like when rapists are held accountable? What does it feel like if everyone had clean water to drink? What does it feel like for a woman or a transperson to walk freely down the street?"

In ten tracks across 60 minutes and two LPs, and featuring original artwork by Muzae Sesay, Butler presents a vision of an imagined future: "techno" in the truest sense, in its original sense. Wrought of hope and the spirit of resistance, The Home I'd Build For Myself And All My Friends recalls techno's emancipatory, Afro-futurist roots. Written in the aftermath of the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland in December 2016, the album is infused with an immediacy, a viscerality, unmatched by its contemporaries.

Tempo and tenor vary throughout, making the record an engaging, dynamic listen. "Builder" is a slow burn, a roller for breaking hearts on the dancefloor. "No New Neighbors" is tense, upbeat, and sparse, built around a taut bassline. "These Seeds" runs slow, ideal for twisted afterparties. "Cure Water" is three minutes of unbridled passion, a beatless cosmic otherworld. The album finishes on a high note with its eponymously titled track: uptempo, intensely percussive, and almost overwhelmingly beautiful.

To Chelsea, Johnny, Joey, Cash, Griffin, Barrett, Micah, Jonathan, Feral, Kiyomi, Draven, Hanna, Peter, Vanessa, Edmond, Billy, Jennifer, Michele, Nicholas, Jenny, Amanda, Denalda, Alex G., Nick, Jsun, Michela, Wolfgang, Sara, Ben, Travis, Ara, Em, Chase, Donna, David, and Alex V.: This is for you. We remember you. We honor you. We love you.