photo credit: Brian Cohen
We didn’t know it at the time, but Thumbscrew had made a second Ours and Theirs. That 2018 double-release presented a disc of originals by the aggressively progressive guitar/bass/drums trio, and another disc of their unique interpretations of songs by others.
That was pretty ambitious to do this all at once and perhaps Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek and Fujiwara didn’t intend to do that again, but they found themselves undertaking that tall task for a second time. Well, sort of.
When Thumbscrew convened to record their ambitious Anthony Braxton Project (2020), they also brought in nine of their own compositions they were already working on — three apiece — and decided to record those as well. This time, they chose not to release both initiatives at once. The occasion of celebrating Braxton’s 75th birthday deserves its own time in the sun, after all.
You can’t hold back Thumbscrew material for long, though. Never Is Enough, to be offered by Cuneiform Records, is like every other Thumbscrew album in that it’s not really like any of those. The highly distinctive musical personalities of Halvorson, Formanek and Fujiwara and their superhuman telepathy are the only ingredients that carry over.
Even if it doesn’t always seem that way on first listen, every Thumbscrew song is a leap into the abyss. The open-ended opening track “Camp Easy” sets up the Halvorson-Formanek reticulation that follows it. “Sequel to Sadness” is how Thumbscrew plays rock; even Formanek plays like a rocker when he takes over Halvorson’s guitar lines that he plays even when Fujiwara goes off the hook with his drum solo.
Just as the Braxton project was Fujiwara’s Thumbscrew debut on vibes, “Never Is Enough” is the first time most people will hear Formanek on electric bass. An episodic piece, we find that Formanek forms a staunch, all-electric union with Halvorson. Fujiwara’s “Through an Open Window” is factional is well, the opening section sporting real tricky interaction among all three. As they toss it up into the next gear, Halvorson’s staggered notes are placed with striking precision. “Emojis Have Consequences” has more of that intricately layered, three-way weave, broken up by individual highlights.
“Heartdrop” is a ballad, Halvorson style. It’s eloquent and classically melodic like all the great soft songs but imbued with her quirkiness that only serves to make the song more captivating. “Unsung Procession” is also a ballad, but through the lens of Fujiwara. Halvorson’s ringing guitar gives it the heft Fujiwara surely imagined for it, as does the drummer’s own sensitive mallets.
Halvorson’s “Fractured Sanity” begins fractured and moves toward sanity but her characteristic patterns and voicings make it a fascinating journey all the way through.
The electric bass returns for the bassist’s piece “Scam Likely” but it’s so heavily electronically altered, it appears as a cross between an organ and an overdriven guitar. Michael Formanek plays droned-out notes on it as Tomas Fujiwara forages around on his kit and when Mary Halvorson belatedly arrives, her drooping, sometimes chiming, tones are right at home in this alien scheme. The freedom and the way they all revel in it is as organic and as ‘Thumbscrew’ as it gets, though.
These recordings were made in the midst of recording Anthony Braxton songs but they don’t sound like Braxton tunes, at least not directly. In any case, Braxton himself would probably just tell them to find their own way, and perform that way with as much creative zeal and gumption as possible. Never Is Enough is testament to that creed.
Never Is Enough is available on February 26, 2021. Pre-order it on Bandcamp.
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