''Macroscope'' is the fifth album by

The Nels Cline Singers The Nels Cline Singers are an American free jazz trio led by Nels Cline, following his work in the Nels Cline Trio. They have released five albums on Cryptogramophone Records. Despite the name, there are no singers in the group. Studio albums * ...

led by American guitarist

Nels Cline Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been the guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004. In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex, a percussionist. He has w ...

which was released in April 29th 2014 on the

Mack Avenue Mack Avenue Records is an independent record label in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. Background Mack Avenue was founded in 1999 by Gretchen Carhartt Valade, a jazz fan and chair of the American apparel company Carhartt. The company is a sponsor ...

label.

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

review by Sean Westergaard awarded the album 4 stars out of 5, stating "while the Nels Cline Singers may have a new bass player and a new label, fortunately their sound has not changed. They're still making some of the most interesting, adventurous, genre-smashing music of the early 21st century. Guitar nerds need to check this out, but it's got wider appeal than that too".

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

's John Fordham rated the album 3 stars out of 5, saying, "''Macroscope'' is a blast through warped Latin music, Hendrix freakouts, double-taking George Bensonian smoothness, electronica and grunge". Writing for

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

, Matt Marshall stated "Since this is a Nels Cline album there are, of course, guitar solos of blistering beauty. But these moments are but part of an organic progression of an ever- roiling music, a highly reactive science experiment that might generate searing fuzz guitar from undulating beats ("Red Before Orange") or rise in a back-spinning psychedelic echo ("The Wedding Band") that replicates into an annihilating vortex of amplified noise".

Premier Guitar ''Premier Guitar'' is a media company devoted to guitarists. It is based in Marion, Iowa, and it's staff is focused on creating the best website, videos, podcasts, and print/digital magazine for gearheads around the world. Interviews have include ...

's Jason Shadrick noted "This isn’t easy music to get into—and it’s not supposed to be. Cline’s musical trick bag is always surprising, but never excessive".

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication fro ...

's Robert Ham called it "one of the best jazz releases of the year to date".Ham, R.
The Nels Cline Singers: Macroscope Review
Paste, April 15, 2014

Track listing

All compositions by Nels Cline. # "Companion Piece" - 5:37 # "Canales' Cabeza" - 4:23 # "Respira" - 4:19 # "Red Before Orange" - 4:11 # "The Wedding Band" - 8:18 # "Macroscopic (For Kusama-San)" - 4:01 # "Climb Down" - 3:20 # "Seven Zed Heaven" - 11:16 # "Hairy Mother" - 7:10 # "Sascha's Book of Frogs" - 5:54

Personnel

The Nels Cline Singers *

– guitar, vocals, effects, drum programming *

Trevor Dunn Trevor Roy Dunn (born January 30, 1968) is an American composer, bass guitarist, and double bassist. He came to prominence in the 1990s with the experimental band Mr. Bungle. While performing with Mr. Bungle, Dunn would dress similar to the ...

– bass, effects *

Scott Amendola Scott Amendola (born February 6, 1969) is an American drummer from the San Francisco Bay Area. His styles include jazz, blues, groove, and rock.Andrew Gilbert"Exploring New Degrees In Drumming" ''sfgate.com'', October 3, 2004. Amendola is origi ...

– drums, percussion, electronics, mbira Additional musicians *

Cyro Baptista Cyro Baptista (born December 23, 1950) is a Brazilian percussionist in jazz and world music. He creates many of the percussion instruments he plays. Career Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Baptista arrived in the U.S. in 1980 with a scholarship to C ...

– percussion *

Yuka Honda Yuka Honda is a Japanese-American musician who resides in New York City. She is a multi-instrumentalist (mainly piano, synthesizer, sampler and other keyboards), composer, record producer, and co-founder of the band Cibo Matto. Throughout her ...

– electric piano, synthesizer * Josh Jones - congas, percussion *

Zeena Parkins Zeena Parkins (born 1956) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist active in experimental, free improvised, contemporary classical, and avant-jazz music; she is known for having "reinvented the harp". Parkins performs on standard har ...

– harp

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Nels Cline Singers albums Mack Avenue Records albums