Sabotage the Plan, with SML

When SML dropped its 2024 debut, the group’s admixture of loopy groove, staticky texture and shifting timbre came on like a transmission from the outer reaches. Behind the music was a method: rangy collective improv whittled down to size, based on a trove of live tape.

SML has released two more albums since, the latest of which, Spontaneous Music Live, consists of two unedited long performances rooted in real-time interplay. For this episode, three of SML’s five members — bassist Anna Butterss, saxophonist Josh Johnson and synthesist Jeremiah Chiu — joined Julian Booker, WRTI’s Associate Program Director for Jazz, to talk about their commitment to shared discovery. (The others are guitarist Gregory Uhlmann and percussionist Booker Stardrum.)

Listen in to learn more about one of our moment’s most beguiling bands.

Chapters

00:00 — Intro & welcome
01:51 — SML at Big Ears
05:49 — SML’s process: turning live tape into records
10:55 — The band, lineup & modular synths
13:01 — Interview with SML
50:15 — Back with Nate & Julian: is this jazz?
55:13 — “This I Dig”

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Chapters

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