San Francisco DJ/producer and [KONTROL] resident Alland Byallo’s debut full-length Brick By Brick for some may be the long-anticipated full-length manifesto of that city’s growing techno scene. However, it is more than just that, there is also a touchingly personal story contained in these grooves that begins with Byallo’s earliest days in the Los Angeles scene all the way up to his current role as a world-renowned DJ/producer from San Francisco.

The titular bricks here are symbolic, something Byallo describes as “different stages I’ve passed through as a person, people I’ve known, places I’ve been, tastes I’ve had and changed-all of it comes together here on this album.”

The album perfectly snapshots Byallo’s distinctive amalgam of sound- something he likes to call a mix of “deep house, techno, Detroit house, the tech-house-when-there-was-no -tech-house, drummy b-sides that felt like the better end of a hit a-side, dub, minimal, and jazz.” But this album is also his great labor of love and he relentlessly explores new expressions that allow his story to unfold organically over the course of the entire album.

Thus, Brick By Brick is more that just another full-length compilation of singles but also a strikingly honest peek into the mind of Byallo as he depicts his past, present, and future as an artist. The primary method he uses to convey this on record is his own voice, like the sly spoken word on the album’s opener “Ring In The Dead” where he summarizes the main themes of the album in just a few short minutes. The richness of verse here finds him writing a new chapter in dance music history and one he says he will continue to pursue in the future.

Brick By Brick may be this year’s most anticipated release, one that encompasses San Francisco’s Alland Byallo’s already-established talent as a producer/DJ but also one that pushed him to his limits as an artist. He exposes so much of his artistic inner core it’s almost shocking, but in doing so has created the rare album that occupies an intensely personal space and yet is still mindless enough to make people dance.

This dichotomy is what makes Brick By Brick so damn exciting and will surely make it one of the few albums people will still be taking about at the end of this year.

Label: Nightlight
Catalog: NLM018
Release: August 27th 2009
Distribution: Beatport & WhatPeoplePlay
Format: Digital / Vinyl tba