BJ Cole Slide-tronic Album Tracks

When is a stream not a stream? When you click on it, and it downloads to your hard drive, which is the case, at least for the time being, for two RealAudio tracks off the new album by pedal-steel guitarist BJ Cole. The electronic world got wind of Cole’s broadminded, plugged-in surf music in 2000, when he collaborated with exotica’n’bass veteran Luke Vibert (aka Wagon Christ). The resulting album, Stop the Panic, didn’t yield either of their best work — common ground rarely being the most prized territory — but Cole’s new album, Trouble in Paradise (Cooking Vinyl), is worth a gander, as it reunites him with Vibert, and also features studio efforts by Brian Eno, Groove Armada, Bent, Kumo, Alabama 3 and others. The two Trouble in Paradise tracks currently on the CV label website, the title cut (lounge music for interstellar cruises) and “Surf Acid Hoedown” (think about the cast of Deliverance stumbling into a rave and making peace with the natives), mix his slide-mode guitar work with contemporary rhythms. Album info and tracks here.