"Much to the delight of dead-eyed, toothy-grinned CEOs, AI is steadily coiling around the music industry's throat. It's ubiquitous: Hip-hop producers are turning computer-concocted samples into viral sensations, record labels are licensing their catalogs to companies like Klay and Udio, and data-center slop is topping the country charts. It's so woven into our reality, it wouldn't be surprising to see a troupe of brewery chooglers cover a Velvet Sundown song sometime soon."
"Its grotesque simplicity is laid bare when compared to a group like Los Angeles future-jazz quintet SML, a group of skilled improvisers who actually do what the vaunted technology promises: By synthesizing all manner of history, theory, and experience, they create complex, brand-new, brain-teasing compositions from the suggestion of a note or a rhythm. There's electricity in this music-literally coursing through guitar pedals, samplers, Eurorack modules, and the DAWs used in post-production, but also between the five musicians themselves."
SML is a Los Angeles future-jazz quintet whose second album blurs live improvisation and post-production. The group synthesizes musical history, theory, and experience to craft complex, novel compositions from minimal prompts. Electricity courses through pedals, samplers, Eurorack modules, and DAWs, while musicians exchange spontaneous energy that software cannot replicate. The band members rarely record together and have never set foot in a recording studio. The quintet comprises bassist Anna Butterss, saxophonist Josh Johnson, guitarist Gregory Uhlmann, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and synthesist Jeremiah Chiu. Each has found a career as a sought-after sideman.
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