Currently the Los Angeles jazz scene is awash with talent built off the work of premier sidemen. Unlike yesteryear, where players would hold fast to their jazz roots, a swathe of Angeleno musicians are venturing into the worlds of indie, experimental music and pop, bringing a diverse sonic palette back to jazz.
LA’s SML embody these ideals. A supergroup consisting of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann, the members have featured on records by artists ranging from Jeff Parker and Ariel Kalma to Perfume Genius and Phoebe Bridgers. On their latest release How You Been, the quintet draw from these diverse credits, producing something overtly progressive and wholly entrancing.
How You Been is a hypnotic banquet of alien electronic sequencing, splayed jazz drumming and essential bass grooves with a seasoning of warped guitars and sax for flavour. Jeremiah Chiu’s modular synthesis forms the record’s interdimensional core and should be commended for its range and creative hysteria. As easily as he provides bubbling, pinprick percussive sequences, Chiu pivots toward spectral pads and odd samples akin to Oneohtrix Point Never or Cristobal Tapia de Veer.
For much of the release, the rest of the quintet follow Chiu’s otherworldly lead but with a measured approach to maximalism. Earlier tracks like ‘Chicago Four’ sound as if Silver Apples attended Berklee College, while the spidery guitar on ‘Taking out the Trash’ and the jolting rhythmic displacement of ‘Stepping In/The Loop’ recall more math-y groups like Horse Lords or Battles. ‘Old Mytth’ [sic] is a standout, showcasing the quintet’s ability to interlink beneath skittish sequencing, with a clear Philip Glass influence in its approach to counterpoint.
Though rhythmically diverse and sonically dense, the underlying grooves courtesy of Butterss and Stardrum provide solace, making an ambitious release inherently head-nodding. Expressiveness comes through the range of sonic timbres explored, not a never-ending maelstrom of notes.
While track sequencing can edge towards clunky territory at times, How You Been is a colourful murmuration of percussive, glacial synths and exploratory jazz interplay. Exciting, expansive and entrancing, SML are evidence of the supergroup’s enduring power.
