A Joyous Fusing of Story and Faith

***1/2

MICHELLE SHOCKED

“Deep Natural”

Mighty Sound

“You can’t take my joy from me,” Shocked sings over an elastically loping reggae track in “Joy,” an explicitly Christian, highly internalized call to rise above the fray. Shocked has risen above conflicts with record companies (this album, due in stores Tuesday, officially launches her own new label), and above the social and political crusades with which she’s been involved over the years.

Joy is the fuel of this album, captured in the heralding reggae dub horns that kick off “What Can I Say,” the African American allegorical storytelling traditions of the song, and the gospel fervor and personal faith infused throughout.

Her activist spirit is present too, but Shocked’s songs are about people and emotions, not issues. “Little Billie” tells of a woman defying grief by dancing on the coffin of her murdered son, with the music and Shocked’s performance embodying the woman’s unyielding will. She turns the view inward in the acoustic “Moanin’ Dove,” a late-night plea for strength with roots in the Delta and Appalachia.

The set may seem miles from the epistolary folkiness of Shocked’s 1988 rookie hit “Anchorage.” But the passion, vision and appeal that have always been at the heart of her music galvanize and unify what may be her most ambitious and fully realized album. She includes a second disc of buoyant, dub-style remixes--another joyful touch that would be anathema in the major-label world these days.

--Steve Hochman

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KINKY

“Kinky”

Sonic 360/Nettwerk America

Don’t let the name fool you. There’s nothing perverse about this fresh, five-man band from Monterrey, Mexico’s home to wealthy industrialists and struggling musical innovators. This inventive group caused a wholesale sensation at the recent South by Southwest music fest in Austin, Texas, with its, well, kinky (as in tightly wound) web of vibrant Latin beats and cool, computerized electronica.

Foremost a dance band, Kinky is said to shine in person (the band’s local debut is set for April 18 at Vynyl in Hollywood). Its first album (due Tuesday) offers a fun fusion of infectious samba rhythms and house grooves, opening with a lovely, gospel-like chorus that explodes into a bass riff echoing Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say?” Analyzed bit by bit, the musical elements here sound starkly simple. But Kinky’s genius is in the mix. Just when a repetitive electronic riff starts to get annoying, Kinky pulls and plugs and leaps into a funky, finger-popping pachuco vamp or tasty timbal break.

In its minimalist lyrics, the band also shows humor and a sense of the absurd. In the quirky “Mirando de Lado,” a mock-serious narrator gives step-by-step instructions on how to see the world sideways. The album peters out aimlessly near the end, but by then Kinky has given our own musical outlook such an original tilt, it’s tough to straighten out. --Agustin Gurza