The eponymous 2002 debut from Kinky received plaudits for its startling fourth-world collision of electro-pop, Latin percussion and sundry ethnic elements borrowed from all over the place. This follow-up doesn't pack quite the same spicy punch, perhaps because producer Thom Russo (Audioslave, System Of A Down) is at the helm this time: accordingly, the debut's quirky, multi-faceted pieces have been for the most part supplanted by more direct, hard-rock dynamics. The result is less distinctive but probably more commercial, with much busy riffage and snarling wah-wah guitar over the pounding disco-funk beats of tracks like "Do U Like It?" and "Salta-Lenin-El-Atlas". There's still plenty to enjoy about Atlas?Ulises Lozano's poppy Farfisa organ sound lends a weird, spindly-sounding undertow to some songs, and the band retains their knack for arresting lines like: "My God is so quiet that sometimes I cannot hear Him when he speaks loud."But it's a less daring enterprise overall, one which runs counter to the approving claim in "Presidente" that "you paint everything in colours instead of black and white".
The eponymous 2002 debut from Kinky received plaudits for its startling fourth-world collision of electro-pop, Latin percussion and sundry ethnic elements borrowed from all over the place. This follow-up doesn’t pack quite the same spicy punch, perhaps because producer Thom Russo (Audioslave, System Of A Down) is at the helm this time: accordingly, the debut’s quirky, multi-faceted pieces have been for the most part supplanted by more direct, hard-rock dynamics. The result is less distinctive but probably more commercial, with much busy riffage and snarling wah-wah guitar over the pounding disco-funk beats of tracks like “Do U Like It?” and “Salta-Lenin-El-Atlas”. There’s still plenty to enjoy about Atlas?Ulises Lozano’s poppy Farfisa organ sound lends a weird, spindly-sounding undertow to some songs, and the band retains their knack for arresting lines like: “My God is so quiet that sometimes I cannot hear Him when he speaks loud.”But it’s a less daring enterprise overall, one which runs counter to the approving claim in “Presidente” that “you paint everything in colours instead of black and white”.