Mexico has always enjoyed the reputation of being something of an exotic melting-pot, a country where the influences of the United States and Latin America collide, and the current Mexican musical scene shows both the strengths and dangers of that process. On the positive side, there's the cheerfully inventive Los De Abajo, or the remarkable Lhasa, the Mexican-American singer whose London debut was one of the high points of the current La Linea Latin Music Festival.
The Festival continued with this show by other Mexican artists who have looked to the States for the musical influences, with less happy results. Ely Guerra is a lady with a shock of black hair and a cool clear voice, who is best known for her experimental work in New York with the likes of Marc Ribot and her appearance on the Way Beyond Nashville album of experimental country music.
At the RFH she seemed unclear which style to follow. Backing herself on acoustic and electric guitar, and accompanied by a percussionist who was also responsible for the electronic effects, she mixed unremarkable drifting mood pieces with gentle, breathy ballads like the country-influenced Tengo Frio. This started well enough but ended, like many of her songs, with a frantic display of excitable but unexciting musical theatrics.
Kinky, the headliners, are currently Mexico's most successful pop export to the United States. They have been showered with praise and awards, but on this showing they have become a slick but rather ordinary dance band who happen to mix electro-pop and guitar riffs with just a veneer of Mexican styles. Driven on by their impressive drummer, they showed enormous energy as they bounded back and forth across the stage, with the occasional appearance of accordion or (inaudible) trumpet rarely challenging the barrage of keyboards and guitars.
Singer Gilberto Verezo mixed rock, rap and occasional sturdy anthems in both Spanish and English, and interrupted proceedings by acting as DJ when he moved to the decks to play, and play around with, a selection of more traditional Mexican records. Then it was back to those predictable, pounding riffs, with the bass guitarist sprinting once again across the stage.
