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Kinky – Atlas

Eclectic Mexican combo's sophomore album

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The eponymous 2002 debut from Kinky received plaudits for its startling fourth-world collision of electro-pop, Latin percussion and sundry ethnic elements borrowed from all over the place. This follow-up doesn’t pack quite the same spicy punch, perhaps because producer Thom Russo (Audioslave, System Of A Down) is at the helm this time: accordingly, the debut’s quirky, multi-faceted pieces have been for the most part supplanted by more direct, hard-rock dynamics. The result is less distinctive but probably more commercial, with much busy riffage and snarling wah-wah guitar over the pounding disco-funk beats of tracks like “Do U Like It?” and “Salta-Lenin-El-Atlas”. There’s still plenty to enjoy about Atlas?Ulises Lozano’s poppy Farfisa organ sound lends a weird, spindly-sounding undertow to some songs, and the band retains their knack for arresting lines like: “My God is so quiet that sometimes I cannot hear Him when he speaks loud.”But it’s a less daring enterprise overall, one which runs counter to the approving claim in “Presidente” that “you paint everything in colours instead of black and white”.

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The eponymous 2002 debut from Kinky received plaudits for its startling fourth-world collision of electro-pop, Latin percussion and sundry ethnic elements borrowed from all over the place. This follow-up doesn't pack quite the same spicy punch, perhaps because producer Thom Russo (Audioslave, System Of...Kinky - Atlas