LA-based quintet SML announce ‘How You Been,’ out on November 7 via International Anthem, accompanied by an animated video for their lead single “Taking Out the Trash”.
Last year, the LA-based quintet SML (bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, drummer Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann), released their debut album, Small Medium Large, one of our 2024 Albums of the Year. In his review of the album, Thomas Blake highlighted how every track had its own very distinct personality, despite the fact that they are all chiselled out of the same single stratum of sonic bedrock, observing “If this sounds like a recipe for an album whose constituent parts are constantly pulling against each other, that isn’t how it comes off. There is, in fact, a pointed and sincere unity to SML’s playing that can only be a result of the intimate and improvisational manner in which the music was conceived. Even at its most jazzy and complex moments, SML is bright, airy and never willfully obtuse.”
The good news is they are back with a second album. How You Been, is set to drop on November 7 via the always-innovative International Anthem label. The quintet have already established themselves as a force of nature, blending improvisation with intricate post-production. Their above-mentioned 2024 debut, Small Medium Large, was a testament to this.
Just as their debut took live show recordings, dismantled and reassembled them to create a single album of exploratory kosmische jazz, SML take this same method to new heights. How You Been was built from a richer pool of live recordings from their 2024 and 2025 tours. However, unlike their debut, which stemmed from early shows, this new material comes from a period of deliberate expansion and a heightened sense of self-awareness. The band approached each performance as a chance to hone their sound, recording every spontaneous moment to be meticulously sculpted in the studio. This process has allowed them to forge a new musical language, one that collapses their wide-ranging influences—from Afrobeat and kosmiche to electric Miles Davis—into a high-resolution, original sound.
The album’s first single, “Taking Out the Trash,” perfectly encapsulates this evolution. The track is a dynamic journey, starting with a percussive synth groove before a heavy breakbeat from Stardrum and Butterss takes over. Uhlmann’s searing, staccato guitar line provides a thrilling counterpoint, while Johnson’s distorted saxophone solo on the track’s climax showcases the band’s willingness to push beyond conventional genre boundaries. The accompanying animated video by Nespy5euro provides a fitting visual complement to the track’s frenetic energy. With a fall tour on the horizon (including a London date on November 20th at Church of Sound), SML is primed to solidify their status as leaders of a new, genre-defying sound.
The release notes highlights the importance of community in releation to SML and their creativity which is worth sharing here:
“…SML’s sound wasn’t created in a vacuum. The band is part of an extensive community of creative musicians who collaborate in a multitude of ways, and that community has proven to be essential to a growing family tree of innovative, genre-expanding music. Los Angeles in the 2020s is a musical Petri dish in the same way that Cologne & Dusseldorf were for the birth of Krautrock; Canterbury for progressive rock in the late 60s; NYC for No Wave & the Downtown sounds of the late 70s and 80s; Chicago for genreless, Tortoise-adjacent sounds in the 90s. The musicians of SML represent the core of a new school within the Los Angeles jazz and improvised music scene that seems to breed infinitely overlapping combinations, including Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet (which features Butterss and Johnson) and Expansion Trio (which features Chiu), Uhlmann & Johnson’s trio with Sam Wilkes, Anna Butterss’s own band (which includes Uhlmann and Johnson, as heard on 2024’s Mighty Vertebrate), and various other solo and ensemble projects encompassing every single member of the SML, respectively.”
Pre-Order How You Been: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/how-you-been
SML Live Dates
Live Oak FL – Friday October 31st – Hulaween
London UK – Thursday November 20th – Church of Sound
Los Angeles CA – Monday December 1st – Zebulon
Los Angeles CA – Tuesday December 2nd – Zebulon
Philadelphia PA – Thursday December 11th – Solar Myth
Brooklyn NY – Friday December 12th – The Sultan Room
Brooklyn NY – Saturday December 13th – The Sultan Room
Chicago IL – Sunday December 14th – Thalia Hall
San Diego CA – Wednesday February 25th – The Loft @ UCSD
San Francisco CA – Thursday February 26th – SF JAZZ Joe Henderson Lab
San Francisco CA – Friday February 27th – SF JAZZ Joe Henderson Lab
Knoxville TN – Thursday March 26th – Big Ears Festival (3 night residency)
Knoxville TN – Friday March 27th – Big Ears Festival (3 night residency)
Knoxville TN – Saturday March 28th – Big Ears Festival (3 night residency)