Crowd Falls Under Spell of English Trio Morcheeba

The English trio Morcheeba spun a musical cocoon around its audience on Friday at the El Rey Theatre, crafting an alluring blend of traditional rock influences and trip-hop spaciness that slowly hypnotized the capacity crowd.

Guitarist Ross Godfrey and his lyricist-mixer brother, Paul, along with a bassist, a drummer and a keyboardist, generated a vortex of rolling bass lines, funky beats, piquant samples and acoustic and electric guitar riffs. At the center was the ever-serene singer Skye Edwards, her subtly inviting voice hovering just above it all throughout a 75-minute set that was as sensual and buoyant as a silk cloud.

Billows of smoke pumped into the hall made such leisurely grooves as “The Sea” even more blissfully dreamlike. But the band kept listeners from completely zoning out by offering up a variety of musical flavors that showed off its versatility while never seeming contrived--from the airy acoustic ballad “Over and Over” to the folk-blues “Part of the Process.”

Although it was surprising to hear the group falter on the Gershwin standard “Summertime” by rendering the song unimaginatively straight, that single misstep was remedied by a dose of Ross Godfrey’s Elmore James-style slide guitar and a stellar 25-minute encore that left the audience wanting only one thing: more.