Nels Cline, the LA-born musician and Wilco sideman who was memorably dubbed the 82nd greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone, has a parallel life as a fearless improv and free-jazz investigator – notably with the Nels Cline Singers, the largely vocals-indifferent trio with whom he has now recorded his fifth album. Macroscope is a blast through warped Latin music, Hendrix freakouts, double-taking George Bensonian smoothness, electronica and grunge. Cline cherishes softly caressed jazz chords as much as he does nightmare wailings, and in Companion Piece and the slinky Red Before Orange he memorably joins them up, particularly when a snarling wah-wah sound barges into the latter's sleekly purring mix. Gothic quaverings unfold over imperturbably chugging congas on The Wedding Band, Hairy Mother is an burble of electronics that becomes a tramping rock groove, and Sascha's Book of Frogs is a stop-start exercise in quirkily chortling guitar lyricism. It's all a bit more civilised and glossy than the 82nd Greatest Guitarist usually is, but it's still the work of a wonderful one-off.