Fittingly for a young member of Chicago’s famously experimental Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Ben Lamar Gay’s jazz reinventions involve blending live-in-the-moment playing with electronics-heavy studio manipulation. Compiled from tracks the multi-instrumentalist recorded over the last seven years, Downtown Castles mixes avant-techno textures with swinging funk (“Swim Swim”) and fractured-rhythm programming with bop-style brass (“Jubilee”). But in addition to its unpredictable (and sometimes abrasive) grooves, the album also finds room for sensual ambiance (“Uvas”) and mournful beauty (“Galveston”). It’s a decidedly abstract but soulful trip.