Fela on acid—that’s what the ears communicate to the brain when SML’s track “Industry” hits.
The quintet, consisting of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann, have taken Mr. Kuti’s Afrobeats and marched those suckers through Miles Davis’ On The Corner prism of funk fusion. Little pirouettes of Bill Laswell’s band Material, dancing in the billowing rearview, move this entire bitches brew closer to Holgar Czukay and his work with Can, in a logical fashion.
The initial sail towards Small Medium Large began with assorted jam sessions that were recorded by the group during two separate two-night stands at beloved Highland Park venue ETA (which unfortunately closed its doors permanently at the end of 2023.)
The album, which was released June 28 on International Anthem, gets its spice from having been engineered and recorded in stereo direct to Nagra (a brand of portable audio recorders produced in 1951 in Switzerland) by Bryce Gonzales and compiled, arranged, and edited with additional production, recording, and studio composition by SML in their various home studios. There, they edited, chopped, and rearranged stereo-mixed improvisations.
Patterns and colors form while the musicians jump into pre-made jams, taking off from those sections to create new pockets, crack open invisible dimensions: this is traveling without moving.
Another hit of Afrobeats, in Jeff Parker and Makaya McCraven cut-up style (according to the group’s Bandcamp description) arrives via “Search Bar High Hat,” which performs the duty of a coda, subtly shuffling itself into the promise of a thousand better days.
“Three Over Steel”, an outro mega jam, is avant-garde and thumping, melding sax licks and Johnson’s sloping lines of scat, with Butterss laying on the slick, thick ooze of gravitational shit.
Two-thirds into the song Butteress goes rogue, switching up the bass pattern, and dialing this heavy mental thunker into 3am Parliament Funkadelic session vibes.
Jesus.
SML makes ya scratch ya head—is it dancefloor Theo Parish bliss? Future fusion? That new shit all those UK bass-based producers will soon steal—excuse me—be inspired by? Naah.
But it is a triumph of rare proportions to see such a record receive breakthrough recognition in this aggregator world. Cleanly intentioned avant-garde and, in some respects, older techniques can indeed pierce through to some mainstream recognition.
SML, with its Teo Macero, Miles Davis editing conviction explored on classics like In a Silent Way, On The Corner, and Get Up With It, come back around on this behemoth of a project.
It’s a bittersweet feeling. With the recent acknowledgment it’s received, this secret gem, this gregarious project that bounces through genres, styles, and techniques, is now shared with the larger world. Isn’t that the way that great art changes ideas? I hope so.
Producer Bill Laswell always talks about repetition being a form of meditation. That’s the “can’t get it out of my system” dose SML has manifested with Small Medium Large.
Buy SML’s Small Medium Large here.
