Here's an inter-generational US trio with serious avant-jazz credentials. Guitarist Halvorson and drummer Fujiwara have both worked with arch conceptualist Anthony Braxton, while bassist Formanek has been a high-profile player since the 1980s, and worked closely with downtown avatar Tim Berne – with whom both his younger colleagues have also been associated. All three are also accomplished leaders – so it's no surprise that Thumbscrew is very much a composer's band, with its members contributing three compositions each. Together they create a sound that somehow succeeds in feeling thin and spidery while simultaneously bristling with intense energy, as complex, angular grooves blur into loose, surging crests of improvisation. Throughout, Halvorson reins in some of the more outré techniques that have made her one of the most visibly innovative jazz guitar stylists to emerge in the last decade – picking her moments to drop in careful smears, swoops and queasy squiggles that lift this far above your average guitar trio.