After breaking through with last year with a self-titled debut, electro-rock quintet Kinky retreated to the jungles of their native Mexico to write and record the follow-up. Due November 18th, Atlas features Kinky's first songs written in English and a guest spot from Cake frontman John McCrea.

"The main concern for us was to have a really live album more than an electronic one," says singer/guitarist Gilberto Cerezo. "Our first album had a lot of loops and sounds like a machine. This time, we wanted to make it more organic and also to try and experiment with different rhythms and sounds."

The band's forays into new rhythms yielded the song "Snapshot," which jumps along with a traditional Norteno rhythm known as "quebradita." "Quebradita is very traditional dance music for the north part of Mexico," Cerezo says. "The people dance really close and the hand of the guy goes around the wrist of the girl and he tries to 'break her.'"

A year spent scurrying around on tour helped spark "Salta Lenin el Atlas" a Spanish palindrome and the ultimate metaphor for band life on the road. "We got the name from a short story by an Argentinian author named Julio Cortazar," Cerezo says. "You get to one place and you return to it. And a palindrome works the same -- you go from beginning to end and you return. We are fascinated with traveling. It's our only destiny."

Part of last year's travels included a stint on the Unlimited Sunshine tour at the invitation of Cake. Kinky returned the favor by asking Cake frontman John McCrea to sing on "The Headphonist (Camposantero)."

"It's a Colombian down-tempo Cumbia beat with a spoken-word poem about wearing headphones over the top of it," says Cerezo. "The feel of the lyrics and the whole vibe of it was his style. He's a good friend and he did it with clean intentions. It felt very comfortable."

Cerezo was just as comfortable cracking into writing English lyrics for the first time, with five songs written in his second language on Atlas. "We've been spending so much time in the States that I've started to think and talk more in English," he says. "Sometimes I even dream in English."

COLIN DEVENISH
(September 10, 2003)