Chicago (out there) jazz label International Anthem celebrates its 11th anniversary at BRDCST #4

BRDCST x INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM x BLOW UPS @ AB VITRINE

The most exciting (out there) jazz label of recent years is undoubtedly Chicago-based International Anthem. Quality newspaper Chicago Reader: “International Anthem brings punk idealism to progressive jazz.” A comparison with the groundbreaking Impulse! Records from the 60’s comes to mind: top-notch productions, the musical gaze ahead and an extremely well-crafted graphic design invariably packaged in an (oh so popular in Japan) OBI strip. 

So it’s no coincidence that BRDCST and International Anthem have been in a blessed marriage for many years now, with previous visits by Tom Skinner (The Smile), Irreversible Entanglements, Jaimie Branch (R.I.P) and Alabaster DePlume.

In the period from 2014-2024, there were around 100 IA releases. They stayed true to their mission statement (‘to vitalize demand for boundary defying music’) and their ethos (‘always looking forward’). In 2025, AI wants to celebrate that past decade under the banner IA11 with ‘a series of releases, reissues, miscellaneous media and events’.

BRDCST has the honour of being a part of the celebrations and marks the 11th anniversary with blow-ups of their artwork exhibited in the AB Vitrine on the Steenstraat and with four prominent artists who are part of the label’s soul.

SML

SML (US) is a brand new quintet consisting of key figures from LA’s thriving jazz/improv/indie scene: bassist Anna Butterss (Makaya McCraven, etc.), synth wizard Jeremiah Chiu (Marta Sofia Honer, etc.), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Carlos Niño, etc.), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Amirtha Kidambi, etc.) and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Perfume Genius, etc.). 

Their debut Small Medium Large builds on Makaya McCraven’s In The Moment, a landmark album in the International Anthem label’s catalogue. The live improvisations on the album were abundantly edited using the cut-and-paste technique. For his part, McCraven drew inspiration from producer Teo Macero, who first applied this technique within a jazz context on Miles Davis’ classic In a Silent Way from 1969.

Boomkat (about their debut): “Psychedelic study of raw grooves that takes its frenetic pulse from a diverse array of influences: from Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Fela Kuti to Pole and Can.” Lastly, SPIN: “Strikingly original—and wildly evocative—art-fusion.”