Fingerprints Music

Reviews:

The free-spirited blend of electronic glitch and Latin rock tropes on Kinky's eponymous 2001 debut prompted some critics to compare the Mexican rock quintet to Beck. Considering the rushed, jumbled sound of the group's follow-up, this may have been a premature assessment. Kinky should be connecting the dots to make its own Odelay or Mutations by now; instead, the group's stuck in a Mellow Gold state of mind, unable to find a consistent voice amidst a surfeit of promising ideas. Despite singer Gil Cerezo's claims to the contrary, Atlas sounds more processed and hyper-conscious than its predecessor-a huge letdown considering the liberties the group takes with its material in a live setting.

If anything, Atlas proves that Kinky really need to get out and buy some new records for the tour van. The guest spots make this album sometimes come off like an FM radio best-of for 1999: Cake frontman John McCrea's dispirited monotone clashes with the rollicking merengue beat on "The Headphonist," while songwriter Itaal Shur, who neutered Santana for the children of Santana fans with "Smooth," contributes the acoustic treacle "Not Afraid." Elsewhere, Kinky strings together ten other songs that sound nothing alike, from the hard-hitting political tract "Presidente" to the jazzy travelogue "Airport Feelings." The jittery genre-hopping is fun in metered doses, but anyone curious to find out what's really shaking on the Latin fringe would do better to investigate Cafuba's more adventurous (and seamless) output while Kinky sorts through its identity crisis.