Josh Johnson's 'Animative' Is a Quietly Radical Masterpiece of Saxophone-as-Everything
Animative came out on 23 October on International Anthem with distribution from Nonesuch, and it is Josh Johnson’s third album under his own name. The credit list is the story: Johnson plays saxophone, synthesizer, sampler, piano, Rhodes, percussion, bass clarinet, guitar and drum synthesizer. He produced it with Paul Bryan, who recorded in Nashville while Johnson recorded in Los Angeles and Brooklyn, and who also mixed. Dave Cooley mastered at Elysian Masters; Scott McNiece sequenced it.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Mostly Johnson’s own, until it isn’t. Paul Bryan plays bass on “Close,” and Meshell Ndegeocello takes the bass chair on “High Step” — a supporting role the label notes she rarely plays. Stereogum’s Chris DeVille, who named it Album Of The Week, calls that track “funky, Headhunters-esque.”
The Spatial Dynamics: DeVille’s description is the best one written: “Johnson merges electronic and acoustic sounds in revelatory yet unshowy ways, so that you can’t always tell what you’re hearing. These are tracks with a lot going on under the hood.” The label explains the mechanism — Johnson often uses the saxophone to control a sampler or drum machine, triggering changes in a loop or an effect.
Standout Performance
Johnson’s own restraint. DeVille: “Johnson brings such measured control to each arrangement that when he finally cuts loose into a solo on ‘Mill,’ it’s startling, like a portal to the past has briefly opened up.”
Why It’s Certified
⚡ Paste’s Matt Mitchell: “You’d never guess the musician leading this album is a saxophonist, as every part resists simple or obvious categorization. Animative is, instead, a fabulous display of electroacoustic virtuosity.”
🌈 Macie Stewart’s violin on “It Can Be Everywhere” and Marquis Hill’s trumpet on the drifting closer “Upstairs 2021” are the moments the room widens beyond Johnson himself — and both earn it.
⚡ Johnson on the opener, “Idiofone”: “I’m really interested in putting the saxophone in a different role besides soloist… The saxophone is also the drum.”
DeVille’s three words: “he succeeds resoundingly.” Mitchell’s: “maybe my favorite jazz project of the year.” Certified great.