The highly distinctive musical personalities of Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek and Tomas Fujiwara and their superhuman telepathy are the only ingredients that carry over from one Thumbscrew album to the next. ‘Never Is Enough’ is full of new daring feats by this amazing trio.

There might not be a better vehicle for the genius of Anthony Braxton than Anthony Braxton himself, but in tackling a few choice selections of his material, Thumbscrew revealed further facets of his ingenuity just in how they use those compositions to take his vision to new places.

With Neil Podgurski and Brian Settles by Chad Taylor’s side, ‘The Daily Biological’ manages to cover a lot of fertile ground found in Taylor’s artistry.

There’s so much ingenuity and telepathy on Tatsuya Nakatani and Shane Parish’s ‘Interactivity,’ it’s easy to forget this is merely an acoustic guitar and some percussion.

Just being eccentric doesn’t make one creative, but Cheer-Accident continues to find ways to be a lot of both twenty albums in. Here’s hoping for another twenty albums by this band.

Borrowing from principles established by the original Mahavishnu Orchestra, Five Time Surprise develops music with no constrictions.

The all-originals ‘Ours’ and all-covers ‘Theirs’ are both bulls eyes from Thumbscrew and a strong way to persuade the quality label Cuneiform to not give up the fight.

With eCsTaSy now six years running, Raoul Björkenheim decided to fully harness the trust built up with eCsTaSy over that time and ‘Doors Of Perception’ is the triumphant result.

feature photo: Sal DeVincenzo, courtesy of Cuneiform Records The notion of progressive rock often suggests the melding of rock with some elements of jazz or jazz fusion, due to extended song forms and an emphasis on instrumental prowess. Thinking Plague sets You May Also Like: Guy Capecelatro III – HopeRead More

On the powerful and unrelenting ‘Process and Reality’, Yoshida’s thunderous drums provide the adrenaline as Pinhas and Merzbow supply the clinical soul.