Something happened to
Tijuana No! between the time they recorded Tijuana No! and
Transgresores de la Ley, and it could well be
Negu Gorriak's
Fermin Muguruza as producer. Tijuana No! sounds loose and meandering compared to the very short 32 minutes of tightly focused arrangements and highly dramatic music on their second album. But even a confirmed
Negu Gorriak fan can genuinely ask whether
Transgresores de la Ley is an expression of
Tijuana No!'s musical identity or whether the Mexican band kinda got hijacked by the Basque radical rock sound treatment. It's true they share radical political sentiments -- witness the vintage photos of Zapata and the contemporary one of the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas marching in formation -- but the heavy riff rock expressed here almost completely overwhelms the strong Jamaican rhythm element of their debut album. The complex title track at times has an almost progressive rock grandeur and "La Esquina Del Mundo" features the
Negu Gorriak guitar duo of Iñigo Muguruza and Kaki Arkarazo working off a modified R&B riff. The uncluttered "Pobre Frida" is a tribute to Frida Kahlo with a nice, skanking groove and woolly baritone sax flavor. But the bomb is a great version of
the Clash's "Spanish Bombs," sung by Cecilia Bastida with lyrics in English and a chorus in Spanish. There are some strong moments, but between the
Clash cover, two lyrics by
Fermin Muguruza, and one from
Manu Chao,
Transgresores de la Ley ultimately leaves the question of
Tijuana No!'s musical identity unresolved. ~ Don Snowden