Punch Brothers 

Blank. It can seem so unpromising. Then again, from another perspective, perhaps a new world awaits you there. Blank: a CD-R, a forthcoming release in a brown, quasi-cardboard sleeve and only these details: ‘Punch Brothers. Punch. For promotional use only. Not for sale. Nonesuch Records.’

So you load the disc and press Play and from the opening bars of Track 1 – and it’s ‘Track 1’ because you haven’t bothered to look at the title yet – you find yourself riveted. Now this is different.

Discordant, dissonant, unorthodox fingerings… was that a high A on the double...