From Monterey, Mexico, Kinky's extraordinary debut album was recently shortlisted for the American equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize, and it's easy to hear why. The quartet mix funk, house, rock-en-Español, salsa, hip hop and mariachi into an anarchic musical fusion that has inevitably been dubbed 'decks-Mex'. Think the Chemical Brothers meet Flaco Jiminez and you'll get the idea.
The lyrics are fascinating, too, although they're almost entirely in Spanish. "San Antonio" is about a local saint, who, when hung upside down, helps women to catch boyfriends.
French study of a true-life serial killer who habitually robbed, kidnapped and killed in the south of France during the 1980s. Stefano Cassetti brilliantly captures the unhinged Succo, and there's a steely intelligence throughout, but Cédric Kahn's overly detached approach drains Succo's demonic acts of real terror or impact. That aside, definitely worth investigating.
More convincingly medieval than his breakthrough film The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring is a dark ballad of revenge balanced between Christianity and paganism. Max von Sydow's daughter is raped and murdered; he kills the culprits. On the surface a simple tale, but laden with intricate themes of guilt.
