Macroscope, the fifth album and Mack Avenue debut by his adventurous trio the Nels Cline Singers, provides a measure of the long-running group's staggering range.
Captivating and continually surprising, the album finds the instrumental trio with the slyly deceptive name veering in one off-kilter direction only to suddenly be overwhelmed by another drastic stylistic shift, often within the space of a single tune. Serrated psychedelia becomes consumed by soulful Brasiliana, blissed-out electronica overwhelmed by garage-rock skronk.