SML Release Debut Album 'Small Medium Large'

International Anthem has released Small Medium Large — the debut album from SML — on all streaming platforms, following its June 28 initial physical release which put the album at #15 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart. 

SML is the new quintet composed of luminaries from Los Angeles’s thriving jazz, improvised, and indie music scenes: bassist Anna Butterss (Jason Isbell, Phoebe Bridgers, Makaya McCraven, Daniel Villarreal), synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (Ariel Kalma, Marta Sofia Honer, Icy Demons), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Meshell Ndegeocello, Leon Bridges, Carlos Niño), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Amirtha Kidambi, Lisel, Lee Ranaldo, Patrick Shiroishi), and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Sam Wilkes, Meg Duffy, Perfume Genius). Stream Small Medium Large here + purchase Small Medium Large on LP, CD, or digital download here.

In a recent LA Times feature surrounding SML and the city's fertile jazz scene, the album was called "a thrilling elegy for a dead nightclub ... an ultra-modern mix of hard post-bop, witchy electronics, and meditative krautrock." Read the full piece here.

Created via chopping and reassembling spontaneous compositions recorded live during two separate two-night stands at the beloved, now-shuttered LA venue ETA, Small Medium Large is a sublime assemblage of circulatory grooves and textural anomalies bewitched by swirls of modular synthesis. At different moments it recalls the kosmiche musik experiments of Can, the rhythmic revelry of Fela Kuti, the low-end elasticity of Parliament-Funkadelic, or the glitchy dub techno of Pole. Taken in totality, the album captures a euphoric creative synchronicity between some of 2024’s most exciting musicians.

The first glimpse into Small Medium Large came with lead single “Industry,” which was featured in both The NY Times Playlist and Pitchfork Selects, while Stereogum said it “rides a nasty groove that feels almost mechanical except that SML are obviously feeling the funk.” Next was “Three Over Steel” (alongside an animated video by Miranda Javid), colliding acidic fusion with icy synth pulses, guitar skronk, and staticky ambience.

Upon physical release, focus track “Window Sill Song” proved a placid reprieve in the middle of the album: a mellow drum machine loop (a la the bygone Belgian bossa queens of Antena) that leads into floating, echoing melodies that raise the levitation and deepen the meditation. 

Small Medium Large was engineered and recorded in stereo direct to Nagra by Bryce Gonzales and compiled, arranged, and edited with additional production, recording, and studio composition by SML across their various home studios.

ETA — which closed its doors at the end of 2023 — is perhaps best known outside of LA for Jeff Parker's 2022 album Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy. The Highland Park venue was the perfect location for the start of SML, especially given that both bassist Anna Butterss and saxophonist Josh Johnson are part of Parker's quartet that held down a regular gig at ETA since the venue's early days, as documented on Parker's album.

While editing, chopping, and rearranging stereo mixed improvisations is hardly a new idea (Makaya McCraven's output on International Anthem serves as a potent modern example), Small Medium Large reflects a stunning expansion of the Teo Macero / Miles Davis editing concept explored on classics like In a Silent Way, On The Corner, and Get Up With It. Stylistically though, these recordings have more in common with the proto-trance repetitions of Harmonia, and with Holgar Czukay's re-assembly technique used in his work with Can. Throw in a supremely intuitive utilization of polyrhythmic floating patterns (a la Susumu Yokota), and the result is a truly innovative take on time-clocked electronic rhythms augmented with live instrumentation that never loses an elusive human sway.

Last night, SML celebrated Small Medium Large with a FREE release event at Zebulon in Los Angeles, with a second night of celebration happening this evening, July 9. More info here. On September 29, SML will be part of the new Warm Love, Cool Dreams festival happening at the Salt Shed in Chicago, featuring heavy hitters including Floating Points, Kelela, and the legendary Jesus Lizard. It’s their Chicago debut, and they will also perform as the backing band for dancehall/reggae queen Sister Nancy. Get tickets here.

TRACKLIST

Rubber Tree Dance
Industry
Herbie for Commericals
Search Bar Hi Hat
Window Sill Song
Switchboard Operations
Soft Sand
Three Over Steel
Chasing Brain
History of Communication
Feed The Birds
Greg's Melody
Dolphin Language