Mighty Vertebrate (Skull Vinyl)

Mighty Vertebrate is the International Anthem debut from Anna Butterss. The Adelaide-born bassist / composer has been a first call for LA tour and studio work since relocating there in 2014 - racking up credits with notables across the experimental, jazz, and pop worlds alike - but their most notable contributions to the burgeoning LA scene have been as a member of both Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet and rising proto-trance supergroup SML, who Pitchfork says 'represents the thrilling next phase of a vibrant L. A. community. ' '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 discreet and focused task. 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. The music itself reflects that structure beautifully, with the material being tightly composed and melodically realized by Butterss well in advance of production concerns. Here they reconvene a group of trusted longtime collaborators to bring their compositions to fruition: Ben Lumsdaine (drums, guitar, production), Josh Johnson (sax), and Gregory Uhlmann (guitar), plus a smoking guest appearance from Jeff Parker. The breadth and scope of the results might have been difficult to achieve otherwise. From the Robbie-Shakespeare-in-groove-mode intro to the album opener 'Bishop' to the spacious cinematic doom of 'Seeing You' there is a lot to wrangle into one cohesive concept. On Mighty Vertebrate, Butterss and crew do just that.