Photo @annabutterss
Anna Butterss — the Australian-born bassist and composer who “has built their career around unshakable rhythm, blinding curiosity, and a profound sense of artistic freedom” (Alternative Press) and whose music “careens wildly from flute-forward spiritual dreaminess to Ralph Records angularity, from bubbling IDM to a catchy, hypnotic sampledelia straight out of early 2000s college radio” (The Quietus) — announces Mighty Vertebrate, their debut album for International Anthem out October 4, with lead single “Shorn” out today.
As evidenced by Butterss’ remarkably varied CV — one that veers from the krautrock-steeped fusion of emergent Los Angeles supergroup SML and improvisatory jazz workouts alongside Jeff Parker and Makaya McCraven to the skyward indie of Phoebe Bridgers and the anthemic Americana of Jason Isbell, among so much more — their versatility as a collaborator is head-spinning. But that busy schedule can be both a blessing and something of an obstacle.
Mighty Vertebrate — Butterss’ first solo album since Activities, which Pitchfork hailed as “one of the most exciting, undersung jazz releases of 2022” — began amid the very real challenge of threading solo work into the dense calendrical web of an in-demand collaborator.
“I had just gotten off of a bunch of touring at the end of 2022 and just wanted to write music,” says Butterss. “The best way for me to do that, I’ve found, is to set myself a discrete and focused task.” The prompts read like something out of an Oblique Strategies deck:
I’m going to make a song where the bass doesn’t function in the role of a bass.
I’m going to work on this for an hour and then I’m going to stop.
I’m going to make a song that uses groups of three-bar phrasing.
I want to sample something and make it into a song.
I’m going to start with a drum machine.
“Every song was like that,” Butterss continues. “Then once I got started I just followed where my mind wanted to go. It was very structured.”
The music — and even the album artwork, created by Tortoise member and one of Butterss’ many sonic reference points John Herndon — reflects that structure beautifully. Butterss’ material was tightly composed and melodically realized before being decked out with candied, kaleidoscopic soundscapes courtesy of album co-producer and percussionist, Ben Lumsdaine. Butterss and Lumsdaine eventually migrated the operation to Chris Schlarb’s Long Beach hideaway BIG EGO to track a selection of full band material with trusted longtime collaborators (and Butterss’ bandmates in SML) Gregory Uhlmann (guitar) and Josh Johnson (saxophone).
This band imbues Mighty Vertebrate with the same confident, chameleonic command that Butterss exhibits across their varied projects. Vintage afrobeat grooves provide ballast for post-modern pedalboard tone sculptures (“Bishop”); Malian desert guitar licks are imbued with a slow roiling post-punk panic (on the Jeff Parker-featuring “Dance Steve”); and placid saxophone elegies are refracted through bubbling synthesis (“Ella”). There are nods towards City Pop, 8-bit video game soundtracks, foreboding post-rock, and lo-fi hip-hop drum machines — all elegantly assembled into a seamless, ever-shifting whole.
Lead single “Shorn” is a sly, slow-building poly-rhythm of drum machine, bass, staccato guitar, and organic percussion that hits immediately with an ever-ascending sax theme and lush tremolo guitars. “Shorn” gives us a glimpse into the space between sinister coolness and compositional beauty, like Lalo Schifrin writing for the club’s chill out room.
Mighty Vertebrate Tracklist:
- Bishop
- Shorn
- Dance Steve (feat. Jeff Parker)
- Ella
- Lubbock
- Pokemans
- Breadrich
- Seeing You
- Counter Point
- Saturno
Credits:
Produced by Ben Lumsdaine and Anna Butterss.
Recorded by Chris Schlarb at BIG EGO Studios and Ben Lumsdaine at Laundry Works II Recording Services.
Mixed by Ben Lumsdaine.
Sequenced by Scott McNiece.
Mastered by David Allen.
Artwork by John Herndon.
Layout by Jeremiah Chiu.
Photographs by Robbie Jeffers.
Josh Johnson – alto saxophone, effects
Gregory Uhlmann – guitar, effects
Ben Lumsdaine – drums, percussion, guitar, lap steel, drum programming
Anna Butterss – upright bass, electric bass, guitar, synths, flute, drum machine
Jeff Parker – guitar (on “Dance Steve”)
All compositions by Anna Butterss
ABOUT ANNA BUTTERSS
Anna Butterss is a Los Angeles-based bassist and composer, originally hailing from Adelaide, Australia. Known to many as a first-call for high profile artists in all genres, they have performed and recorded with Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, Andrew Bird, Phoebe Bridgers, Madison Cunningham, Aimee Mann, Jason Isbell, and many others.
Butterss is a core member of the fast-rising proto-trance supergroup SML, who Pitchfork says “represents the thrilling next phase of a vibrant L.A. community.” Their first solo album Activities was also praised by Pitchfork as “one of the most exciting, undersung jazz releases of 2022.” Butterss’s uniquely lyrical low end command has been foundational to progressive jazz recordings such as Jeff Parker’s Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings, Daniel Villareal’s Panamá 77 and Lados B, and SML’s debut LP Small Medium Large.
Their International Anthem debut Mighty Vertebrate – an album co-produced with Ben Lumsdaine, recorded at Chris Schlarb’s Big Ego Studios, and featuring Josh Johnson and Gregory Uhlmann of SML – will be released in October of 2024.
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By: Bass Magazine