With Spontaneous Music Live, their new album for International Anthem, SML finally documents that experience in full: two sprawling, unedited performances recorded at Zebulon that capture the band shape-shifting in real time. Ahead of SML’s June 26th and 27th performances at Teragram Ballroom celebrating Aquarium Drunkard’s 21st anniversary, we gathered all five members together to discuss improvisation, groove mechanics, communication, martinis, and more.
Category: SML
SML :: How You Been
SML rattles and clatters, following slap-dash, stutter-and-roll rhythms through rave-glowing forests of incandescent synths. The personnel comes from jazz, more or less, but you can hear bits of ambient chill-out, early aughts EDM, hip hop, house and free improvisation. Slashing, bumping, “Take Out the Trash” runs on a noir-ish bassline, a bit of David Axelrod’s cinematics or Death in Vegas’ ominous dance grooves in its cowbell clanging, horn-bursting swagger.