Techno with a “commitment to life”.

Bay Area hardware operator Russell E.L. Butler has announced a new 12″ in the wake of the warehouse fire that claimed the lives of 36 people, many of them artists and musicians.

‘I’m Dropping Out Of Life’ follows his releases on Jacktone Records, Opal Tapes and its vinyl offshoot Black Opal, with Butler joining the Atlanta-based CGI Records for four tracks of “essentialist dance music that can provide an ecstatic escape from the drudges of professional life,” as the label states.

“The title has been on my mind a lot, since I almost lost my life in the Ghost Ship fire and watched as many of my friends lost theirs,” says Butler, who was at the Oakland warehouse when it was ravaged by fire on December 2.

“I came up with the title several months ago – in fact two of the tracks were shopped in a producer’s group that Johnny [Igaz, aka Nackt] and Chelsea [Faith, aka Cherushii] were a part of, both of whom I lost in the fire. This release is about a commitment to life. The life that I refer to dropping out of is a life where dreams are put on hold, where concessions are made in order to just survive.” A poem written by Butler comes as an insert to the record.

The title track, ‘I’m Dropping Out of Life’, is a tactile and hypnotic late-late-night adventure, with Butler’s alien drones gathering like the San Francisco fog over his chewy, floor-ready drums. Stream it above ahead of the EP’s release on January 30, and pre-order it from Bandcamp.