Live Review: Tijuana Cartel, Kallidad

The instrumental spectacle that is Kallidad brought their fast and furious flamenco fire to the Oxford Art Factory and worked the entire room expertly. The boys looked freaky with their trademark ghoulish face paint. Lead guitarist Jacinko controlled the mood with his song-defining hooks whilst percussionist and semi-frontman Senior Bang Bang belted out beats on a selection of drum kits and bongos.  Jacinko dived into the crowd and an enthusiastic circle formed around him as he traded riffs with The Raven, standing on top of his amp as he did for most of the set. Their mariachi style of metal was expertly played and boosted the mood of the room so that when the headliners emerged, everybody was loose and ready to continue dancing.

Tijuana Cartel guitarist and vocalist Carey O’Sullivan adopted The Raven’s power-stance atop of his amp, building a swirling rattling wall of guitar sound instantly that would eventually become a funky tropical beat heightened by electronic beats that seem to have become more consistent and heavier since the songs on M1 were released in 2012. With transformer sound effect-styled electronic mashes squashing each other and sirens blazing their music seems have adopted almost a dub step element, but the drop comes in the form of a previously mentioned Mexican groove. The Cartel adopted three new members in the form of two bongo players and a trumpeter to create a well-rounded live sound. They sifted through old tracks like Letting Her Go and Slippedy Slide and broke them up with tracks off the forthcoming new album and tellingly there was no lull in crowd movement at any stage. The new album feels much the same as previous releases, but with the added stage members and newfound techno beats it’s becoming even easier to get around Tijuana Cartel.