*announcing* IARC0086

Anna Butterss
Mighty Vertebrate

LP/CD/DD out
October 4th, 2024

After many supporting appearances on IARC across the years (including Makaya McCraven's Universal Beings in 2018, Daniel Villareal's Panamá 77 in 2022 and Lados B in 2023, Bex Burch's There is only love and fear also in 2023, and earlier this Summer as a core member of SML on Small Medium Large) we could not be more ecstatic to announce our first lead artist release with Anna Butterss!!!

The Adelaide, Australia-born bassist and composer "has built their career around unshakable rhythm, blinding curiosity, and a profound sense of artistic freedom" (Alternative Press); and their 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).

Mighty Vertebrate is out October 4th; and the album's lead single "Shorn" is out today.

Preview & preorder here.

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.

Preview & preorder
Mighty Vertebrate here.

"Shorn"

Along with today's announcement, the album's lead single “Shorn” – 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 – is out on all digital music platforms.

“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.

Listen.

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.

Limited Edition Fossilized Chartreuse* Color Vinyl*

Mighty Vertebrate comes on 140 gram vinyl LP (pressed at Pallas in Germany, with lacquers cut by Daniel K at SST) inside a heavyweight matte jacket - featuring artwork by John Herndon - with IARC obi strip and poly-lined printed inner-sleeves.

And for the first pressing only, we have a limited edition of 444 copies on *Fossilized Chartreuse* color vinyl.

Order a copy today!

Purchase Mighty Vertebrate
as part of the

Fall '24 Bundle

For the fervent, faithful collector of our output.

Mighty Vertebrate is the first of our Autumn releases, which means – you guessed it! – the FALL '24 BUNDLE is available for purchase now! Perhaps our most mondo bundle yet, this single parcel will include all SIX (6!) LPs to-be-announced across Fall 2024. No spoilers here, but we can tell you for certain that the season is STACKED.

This bundle includes 5x single LP releases and 1x double LP release. Purchase gets you a bundle-exclusive discount of 10% off the LP prices, plus a 60% discount on shipping costs.

The bundle will ship from our warehouses in the US, EU and UK, but don't sleep.. the quantity available in each warehouse is limited! Early purchase is recommended to ensure the lowest possible shipping, tax, and VAT costs.

All items will ship together in one package around November 1st, so you'll be receiving half of your bundle 2-4 weeks after the initial street dates, and the other half you'll be receiving early.

Bandcamp downloads will be sent via email for all the releases by, or before, the ship date.

Order the Fall '24 Bundle on limited edition color vinyl here.
Order the Fall '24 Bundle on classic black vinyl here.

Distribution via RedEye for US, Canada, North & South America

Retailers in the United States or Canada or anywhere else inside of North, South and Central America... Please reach out to your sales rep at RedEye Worldwide if you are interested in making wholesale purchases of this album, or any other album in our catalog. Don't yet have a RedEye rep? Please just reach out to us and we'll get you hooked up!

Distribution via !K7 for Europe, UK, Japan, Australia, and ROW

This album will be distributed by our good friends at !K7 and their various territory partners in Europe, UK, Australia, and everywhere else in the world outside of North & South America.

If you are a retailer or store with questions about wholesale or are just looking to get some of our records... we'd like to make things as easy for you as possible, please do not hesitate to reach out!!!