En La Esquina

Not to be confused with the onda grupera act who rose to fame in the '90s, Los Fugitivos were a Mexican rock band who cut a hard-to-find album for Dimsa in 1969, which gets an expanded reissue in this edition from Rockbeat. For the most part, En La Esquina finds Los Fugitivos covering popular American rock tunes of the day en Español, though they dig a bit deeper for a psychedelic version of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" with lots of soloing, and a spirited run through Roy Orbison's "Ooby Dooby," as well as a few originals. What really sets Los Fugitivos apart is their apparent status as Mexico's biggest Creedence Clearwater Revival fans; no fewer than seven songs here were either written by John Fogerty or covered by CCR during their heyday, one of which lends the album its title. While Los Fugitivos generally remain faithful to the originals, they know how to add their own accents to the tunes, such as the splash of reverb and feedback at the beginning and end of "Amanecer en la Luna" (aka "Bad Moon Rising") and the fuzz bass and percussion that puts a different spin on "El Espiritista" (adapted from the Jaggerz' sole hit "The Rapper"). And most of the time, these guys play with genuine spirit and skill, though they might have wanted to spend more time with Vanity Faire's "Hitchin' a Ride" before they rolled tape, though the keyboard line might have influenced a number of synth-pop acts had they ever heard it. If only for the abundance of Creedence covers, En La Esquina would be an amusing curiosity for fans of Mexican rock of the period, though the band's own likeably skewed vision makes this interesting to a wider variety of consumers of rock esoterica.