A collective capable of producing extraordinary music, SML are back with a two-track live set that proves the strengths of the players involved. Spontaneous Music Live, recorded at Zebulon in L.A. last December finds the quintet maintaining two grooves for nearly an hour. Each piece here -- a full side on a record -- has invention galore.
SML -- bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, drummer Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann -- crank up a polyrhythmic hook on "The Drums". Johnson and Butterss hold down the rhythm itself while accents from Chiu keep this feeling as light as air. The cut has a little bit of Eno and Hassell's "Fourth World" about it, and the sort of momentum that propelled Krautrock stuff too. And while this one is called "The Drums", there are moments where Johnson's sax carries the hook into free jazz space.
The insistence of "Roundabouts", the second of two tracks on Spontaneous Music Live, is enticing. The composition is built around a rapid riff. As faint sax from Johnson and percolating drum hits and cymbal crashes frm Stardrum punctuate the piece, the other players find their grooves. Uhlmann's guitar is slightly more prominent here but all five musicians cut loose in exciting ways on this composition. The results are borderline hypnotic, and the energy of the thing is a bit contagious. I can see writers leaning on Krautrock references when describing this piece in particular and they won't be entirely wrong.
One of the most invigorating records you're going to hear this summer, Spontaneous Music Live offers example after example of the chops of the five players involved, and confirms that SML is a collective worth following closely. The talent here, and the energy, is something that anyone with a bit of discernment will realize is evidence of one of the most vital bands in this country in 2026.
Spontaneous Music Live by SML is out today via International Anthem.
[Photo: Ariel Fisher]