Album Review:

Surfin' Con Los Mabber's is a super rare Mexican album by a group that was active around Mexico City circa 1963-64. This is their only album though they did release a few EPs and singles on Musart Records. There’s not a lot of information about this group available, but I do know that there are two pressings of this album - one from Mexico and one from Venezuela. If that’s indicative of anything, it may point to the fact that Los Mabbers had had some kind of presence outside of purely Mexico. 

There are a few familiar tunes on here - ‘Surfin’ USA’ becomes ‘Chica Cruel,' ’Noble Surfer' becomes ‘Llego El Surfin’ and ’Shut Down’ becomes ‘Baya Ya.’ Interestingly ‘Surfin’ Safari’ is left intact in its original form. ‘Kilowatts’ is, without a doubt, the album’s most memorable moment. 'Suicida' is based on 'Kamikaze' from the Challengers' Surf Beat album. Everything here is played rather loosely (albeit energetically) without much regard for any musical semblance of order. My copy used to belong to two Venezuelan teenage girls who wrote their thoughts on each song (and each band member) on the back. And you know, I must say I agree with their assessments … of the songs, that is. None of the rest of the songs will be of much interest to the casual surf fan. 

NOTE: If anyone’s interested in more Mexican surf music, Los Mabbers released a dual single with Los Yorsys - “Las Clases Del Surfin,” which is much tighter and better executed than this album, in my mind….