{"product_id":"spontaneous_music_live","title":"Spontaneous Music Live","description":"\u003cp\u003eSpontaneous Music Live is a 2026 live album by Los Angeles‑based quintet SML (Anna Butterss, Jeremiah Chiu, Josh Johnson, Booker Stardrum, and Gregory Uhlmann), released by International Anthem and recorded over a three‑night residency at Zebulon in December 2025. Captured and mixed straight to analog tape by engineer Bryce Gonzales, the record contains just two tracks—The Drums and Roundabouts—each a roughly 20‑plus‑minute side‑length improvisation with no edits, overdubs, or post‑production splicing. It’s a deliberate contrast to SML’s earlier albums, which were constructed by chopping up live recordings into short, collage‑like pieces; here, listeners get the “psychedelic realism” of the band in situ, following their ideas in real time as they search, latch onto grooves, and mutate them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMusically, the two pieces unfold like evolving ecosystems, built around steady, hypnotic mid‑tempo pulses (often hovering near 130 BPM) that let the group explore without losing the sense of a collective heartbeat. The Drums places Booker Stardrum’s kit front and center, starting as a low tom rumble and gradually blooming into muscular, swinging patterns while Butterss’s bass quietly steers harmony and Johnson and Uhlmann trade jagged, sometimes dissonant sax‑and‑guitar fragments “like two Echo Park geese getting into a fight.” Roundabouts leans more into minimalism and textural play, with Chiu’s keys and electronics adding shimmering layers as motifs appear, dissolve, and reappear, giving the sense of a band constantly feeding new material to a fire they’re determined to keep alive. Critics have hailed the album as SML’s best yet: gloriously unwieldy, unpredictable, and rewarding on repeat listens, where each pass reveals new micro‑gestures and interactions inside these long, boundary‑free jams.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Record Store","offers":[{"title":"Vinyl \/ Album","offer_id":53704860565818,"sku":"39082","price":39.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/2041\/0682\/files\/Screenshot_2026-07-08_at_7.49.37_PM.jpeg?v=1783554698","url":"https:\/\/recordstore.ca\/products\/spontaneous_music_live","provider":"Record Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}