ANNA BUTTERSS Vinyl & CDs

Review: Mighty Vertebrate is the International Anthem leader debut from Adelaide, Australia-born bassist and composer Anna Butterss. Having racked up many a studio credit for her bass playing on the international jazz and avant-garde circuit, Butterss now makes her debut, homing back in on her local West Coast music scene to deliver a sombre round number of unorthodox, bass-led experiments. Despite her star instrument taking centre stage as ever, Butterss works to a bulleted-list formula worthy of a performance artist, constructing her album from a set of oblique strategies including: "I'm going to make a song where the bass doesn't function in the role of a bass" and "I'm going to work on this for an hour and then I'm going to stop". Living up to the name, Mighty Vertebrate builds a structural complexion from disparate found parts, making for a mighty experimental jazz jaunt.

Review: After making some low-key waves with his Panama 77 LP, Daniel Villarreal is back with a unique document which pulls from the same era and mindset, but offers something very different. When in October 2020 he invited Jeff Parker and Anna Butterss to record in the backyard of Chicly Outpost in LA, it was the first jam the three had experienced post-lockdown. Some results from the session made it onto the last record, but now Villarreal has decided to focus squarely on these poignant sessions and pull out some of the finest material for our listening pleasure, and what a pleasure it surely is. Dusky, scratchy and honest, this is stripped down jamming jazz at its best.