A few years ago, the International Anthem label was pretty much the hottest shit in the improvised music genre. Irreversible Entanglements, the late Jaimie Branch, Ben LaMar Gay, Angel Bat Dawid, Makaya McCraven, Jeff Parker, Damon Locks - they had them all. Lately, though, the focus seemed to have shifted more towards world music and alternative stuff. That’s where SML’s new album comes in at just the right time to set the record straight a bit.
SML is an International Anthem in-house supergroup consisting of Josh Johnson (saxophones), Gregory Uhlmann (guitar), Jeremiah Chiu (synthesizer, electronics), Anna Butterss (bass) and Booker Stardrum (drums), which has released two studio albums to date - Small Medium Large (2024) (which could also be read as a moniker for SML) and How You Been (2025). The hallmarks of their music can already be found on these two albums: repetitive structures, subtle shifts in the architecture of the pieces, and an affinity for deliberate monotony and world music. However, the term “studio album” isn’t entirely accurate, since How You Been, for example, consists of performances from the Empty Bottle in Chicago, the Tractor Tavern in Seattle, and the Zebulon in Los Angeles, which were condensed into three- and four-minute highlights. What might sound somewhat dismissive here are, in fact, moments of immense concentration and intensity, distilled from a continuous stream of consciousness and an almost magical band chemistry. The reason is simple: SML are a live band. And the references to their musical influences are obvious: 1970s Miles Davis, the Sun Ra Arkestra, Neu!, King Crimson and Can.
You can really feel this in the way the band tries to make the pull of their music physically palpable during live performances. They create a form of ecstatic minimalism by stretching individual motifs to the point of trance. Spontaneous Music Livewas once again recorded in front of a live audience at Zebulon in Los Angeles. What sets it apart from its predecessors is the immediacy of the recording and the near-total absence of post-production. The album consists of two long tracks, each over twenty minutes in length, and demonstrates what SML is capable of when their music isn’t forced into the confines of a standard song length. The result of these session-style improvisations reveals great discipline, dynamics, and a distinct artistic vision. Take “Roundabouts (Live)”, for example, the B-side of the LP. It starts with a delicate saxophone melody, metronome-like drumming and a concise synthesizer riff, which eventually spiral completely out of control. What Spontaneous Music Livesucceeds in doing - unlike its two predecessor albums - is to bring the psychedelic nature of the music into sharp focus.
It’s easy to imagine the band playing at the big festivals of the late 1960s - the hippies would have loved their style and sound. Actually, it’s music to “turn on, tune in, and drop out“, except that you don’t need drugs to enjoy it - the music itself is the drug. SML are trippy in the best possible way.
Spontaneous Music Live is available on vinyl, cassette and as a download.
You can listen to it and buy it here:
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