THE NELS CLINE SINGERS - Macroscope
Mack Avenue Records
Nels Cline ( guitars, effects, voice, drum machine) Trevor Dunn ( basses, effects) Scott Amendola ( drums, percussion, electronic treatments, loops) with additional musicians on keys and percussion plus electric harp)
Recorded in January 2013 at Fantasy Studios, Berkley, California.
Expecting a choral recital, as you would from the group’s title, I was surprised, and not unpleasantly so, to discover a contemporary guitar trio with the merest hint of wordless vocalisation added to the textural mix of electronic and percussive sounds. Cline reveals his guitar allegiances in the first two trio only tracks: Schofield, Metheny and Frissel are all there but as the album progresses shades of Zappa are also become detectable. Not that this matters because the ingenuity of the music lies not in its stylistic influences but it the way the various elements are assembled.
Electronically generated sound plays an important role in enhancing both the dramatic and meditative qualities of the music whilst an array of percussive devices , electronic and acoustic, maintain a constant state of flux, generating beats of every variety to underpin a fascinatingly diverse and sometimes rather wayward set of compositions.
Starting out rather quietly, legato themes with gentle harmonies become increasingly agitated giving way to white noise soundscapes of menacing power whilst rubato shimmering in the rhythm morphs into heavy rock style thrashing. Likewise Cline picks his way from oriental introspection to torrid prog rock shredding, often within in the space of a single piece. It is an enterprising project that brings together manifold influences with a creative zeal that is impressive and arresting and nowhere is this more appealing than in the final piece, `Sacha’s Book of Frogs`, a little tone poem that employs leaping, episodic motifs within a boppish theme to illustrate its subject matter.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Mack Avenue Records
Nels Cline ( guitars, effects, voice, drum machine) Trevor Dunn ( basses, effects) Scott Amendola ( drums, percussion, electronic treatments, loops) with additional musicians on keys and percussion plus electric harp)
Recorded in January 2013 at Fantasy Studios, Berkley, California.
Expecting a choral recital, as you would from the group’s title, I was surprised, and not unpleasantly so, to discover a contemporary guitar trio with the merest hint of wordless vocalisation added to the textural mix of electronic and percussive sounds. Cline reveals his guitar allegiances in the first two trio only tracks: Schofield, Metheny and Frissel are all there but as the album progresses shades of Zappa are also become detectable. Not that this matters because the ingenuity of the music lies not in its stylistic influences but it the way the various elements are assembled.
Electronically generated sound plays an important role in enhancing both the dramatic and meditative qualities of the music whilst an array of percussive devices , electronic and acoustic, maintain a constant state of flux, generating beats of every variety to underpin a fascinatingly diverse and sometimes rather wayward set of compositions.
Starting out rather quietly, legato themes with gentle harmonies become increasingly agitated giving way to white noise soundscapes of menacing power whilst rubato shimmering in the rhythm morphs into heavy rock style thrashing. Likewise Cline picks his way from oriental introspection to torrid prog rock shredding, often within in the space of a single piece. It is an enterprising project that brings together manifold influences with a creative zeal that is impressive and arresting and nowhere is this more appealing than in the final piece, `Sacha’s Book of Frogs`, a little tone poem that employs leaping, episodic motifs within a boppish theme to illustrate its subject matter.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
