Kinky: Kinky : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The debut from Kinky is not so much about sex as it is about the group's hometown of Monterrey, Mexico, the border region where club music, hip-hop and Latin overlap. Call it space music for the Spanglish Age. But despite the band's electronic trappings -- keyboardist-programmer Ulises Lozano tends to dominate the fivesome -- Kinky has a visceral, funky feel to it. Take the oddly catchy "Soun Tha Primer Amor," in which a synthetic brass section flirts with timbales and cyborg choruses. Produced by British bon vivant Chris Allison, Kinky seems to fulfill the electro-pop promise that fellow Monterreyans Plastilina Mosh could not. Guitarist-turntablist-vocalist Gil Cerezo likes to stay low in the mix as he murmurs obscure, cut-up poetry; on "San Antonio" he keenly navigates the keyboard vamps and jazz flute play that give the track such an ethereal quality. But the bottom line for Kinky is booty-shaking -- whether they dabble in deconstructed samba ("Sol [Batucada]"), DJ Shadow-like bass 'n' break beats ("M·s") or norteÒo-accordion-cum-Chic-disco-guitar licks ("Cornman"), Kinky are as feverishly danceable as a night in Ibiza.

ED MORALES
(RS 893 – April 11, 2002)