SML – How You Been

Built from live recordings and riveted together with intention, How You Been captures SML in full propulsion: a groove-locked quintet finding shape in the blur. The music mutates and surges, led by Anna Butterss (electric bass) and Booker Stardrum (drums, percussion), who anchor even the most abstract passages with physical force. Around them, Jeremiah Chiu (modular synth, percussion), Josh Johnson (saxophone, electronics), and Gregory Uhlmann (guitar, effects) twist circuitry and melody into shimmering patterns. Recorded at venues including Zebulon, Public Records and the Empty Bottle, the performances were later cracked open and reassembled by the band into something newly alive. It’s a document of warped tones and rhythmic heat, of interplay that holds its center even as the edges bend. “Taking Out the Trash” sounds like a joyful collision between Penguin Cafe Orchestra and mid-’70s Afrobeat. “Old Mythh” is a feast of percussion, sax, and squiggly synth. “Moving Walkway” is meditative, dubby, and sublimely psychedelic. All three reflect the quintet’s intuitive cohesion and communal sense of time.

Recommended – Full Listen