Kinky

Album Review

Kinky may be a Mexican band, but these guys are a long shot from any preconceived notions you may have about what a Mexican band should sound like. They're anything but traditional and, if tagged as anything, are about as alternative as Latin alternative gets. This is because Kinky is a band that plays electronic dance music without going the computerized beat-making route. Well, at least not wholeheartedly, as they retain their essence as a band above all (rather than program beats, they seem to sample themselves and then loop those samples). It's tough to pin these guys down on their self-titled debut album because it veers all over the place, sometimes within a single song. The album opener, "Más," is a case in point, with its wah-wah guitars spitting out funk licks and its hip-hop breakbeats signifying the multicultural mélange to come. Some songs go a step further, like "Ejercico No. 16" in particular, kicking up such a dance-party dust storm that you're liable to mistake Kinky for Daft Punk. So while Kinky are indeed Latin musicians and sing in Spanish, that's somewhat of a minor issue. Like los Amigos Invisibles or Titan, Kinky emphasize the music, not the singing nor the cultural cues — they're a universal band with a universal sound that just happens to originate in Monterrey, Mexico. After all, this debut album was licensed by Nettwerk America (a Canadian label best known for releasing albums by Sarah McLachlan and the Barenaked Ladies) and was produced by Chris Allison (a Brit best known for working with Coldplay and Dot Allison), so it doesn't exactly boast a lot of Latin credentials. It doesn't need to when it's this great — Kinky is the sort of album that should stand on its out, beyond the realm of geographic or demographic categorization, and most certainly beyond cultural expectations or stereotypes. And when taken on its own terms — an album of music performed by a band — it's hard to resist the dynamic rocktronica en español of Kinky here, especially if you're keen on pigeonhole-defying multicultural listening experiences.