When Cole and Vibert Meet, Convention Goes Out the Door

Seeing techno artists take their places behind consoles is the norm. Seeing one sit behind a console with strings rather than knobs and buttons at the El Rey Theatre on Thursday was a clear signal that this was not business as usual.

Indeed, the pairing of English pedal steel guitar veteran B.J. Cole with electronica master Luke Vibert is all about departures from convention. Matching the pedal steel--best known for its place in country and Hawaiian music--with digital samplers and sequencers is like putting whipped cream on a bowl of transistors. But both musicians’ imagination and instincts made for an intriguing blend.

Playing off formulas established on the recent “Stop the Panic” album, Cole plied an array of approaches--sweet Hawaiian sighs to jittery country runs to gear-shifting roars--over Vibert’s beats and blips. It didn’t always mesh (Vibert often made those beats too stiff), but when it did it was delightfully odd.

The evening’s co-headliner, Mu-Ziq (English musician Michael Paradinas), followed with his own distinctive juxtapositions, as he teased electronic percussion tracks over his digital chamber compositions, but rarely let the beats lock-step into predictability. At its best it sounded perfect for loopy film scores or Cirque du Soleil.

On the downside, twiddling his sampler and mixer, he largely just re-created the tracks of last year’s “Royal Astronomy” album, and neither he nor Cole and Vibert offered much visual excitement. As one concert-goer griped, “I already paid for the CD.”