The combination of five of the most interesting players in music today and a label that can't miss is a recipe for one of this week's most exciting records. How You Been, the second full-length from the SML (AKA Small Medium Large) quintet is a pretty great example of what makes International Anthem a label worth following closely. This is, in simple terms, a delight.
Consisting of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, drummer Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann, SML throw your preconceptions out of the window here. How You Been is as much a jazz album as it is a post-punk one. There's as much here that is in debt to Tortoise as there is that's in debt to Miles, you know? "Chicago Four", for example, percolates atop gurgles and bleeps not unlike those on early Stereolab records as Stardrum uses cymbal washes to accentuate the groove. This one is a cut which positively bounces. Elsewhere, "Stepping In / The Loop" finds Chiu's keyboard chords dueling with a polyphonic beat. The music has a momentum which is undeniable, and the same goes for "Taking Out The Trash", another highlight here. On that one, bass from Butterss and drums from Stardrum keep things tethered while the other parts of the number veer off for the skies. Of note, Josh Johnson's sax on this cut pushes into Archie Shepp-like territory, with his runs having an urgent, almost nervously searching quality. It's fantastic, man. "Daves" finds more spaces for Gregory Uhlmann's guitar-work to inhabit. This one, a noisy bit of chaotic beauty, finds Uhlmann and Johnson jostling against each other, the sax and guitar eventually finding a spot to merge paths amid the noise.
This is one hell of a record. To heck with being objective and all that. This is an album worth raving about for anyone even the least bit interested in adventurous music, and contemporary jazz and post-rock. There's invention, wit, and adept musicianship here, with the quintet crafting pieces which sort of pull a curtain back on a riotous scene, where the music which issues forth gradually makes perfect sense as the chaos subsides. Bracingly noisy, and utterly entralling, this is one of the best releases on this imprint in some time and that's saying something.
How You Been by SML is out on Friday on International Anthem. Details below as well.
[Photo: Charlie Weinmann]