Kinky : Kinky : Review : Rolling Stone

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)