A Fluid, Iconoclastic Blend of House Music and Noise Rock

Formed by a husband-and-wife team of psychologists, the French electronica collective known as Rino^ceero^se has developed an intriguing (and appropriately heady) concept: to combine the rhythmic euphoria of house music with the dissonant edginess of noise rock.

Thursday at the Palace, the duo, enhanced by five musicians, created a series of fluid, iconoclastic soundscapes by triggering plump, sweat-inducing beats, then enriching them with layers and layers of live instrumentation.

While Patrice Carrie, a.k.a. Patou, delivered solid bass lines, her husband, Jean-Philippe Freu, manufactured a series of bizarre guitar noises that would have made Robert Fripp proud. There was also live Afro-Cuban percussion, and bursts of flute betraying a lounge tendency.

And more guitars. The guitar aspect is so heavy, in fact, that the band’s debut album, “Installation Sonore,” could be the one to make die-hard rock fanatics succumb to the cold beauty of artificial beats.

Attempting to transcend the limitations of their musical proposition, which does wear a little thin after a while, Rino^ceero^se supplemented the proceedings with an elaborate series of video projections. The minimalist tune “Rock Classics Volume I,” for instance, was coupled with a collage of images depicting some of rock’s most illustrious album covers. Tres cool.

At this point, it’s not quite clear whether Rino^ceero^se will be able to generate a career out of its cleverness. A second album might deliver the answer.