The Exciting Sounds of Los Young Beats has the entire recorded output from the mid-60s Colombian garage rock band Los Young Beats (their sole LP recorded in 1966 called Tiempos, Ellas Estan Cambiando - the Spanish translation of The Times They Are A-Changing) and a followup single from 1967 by the related band The Time Machine.

It's a cd released by the great German label called Break-a-way Records which has also released a slew of great obscure 60s garage rock from The Belfast Gypsies (from the UK), The Ringers (from LA), The Troup (from Indiana), The Fifth Order (from Columbus, Ohio), The Embermen Five, The Trenchmen, The Lost Souls (three from North Dakota), The Heard, The Only Ones (both from Texas) Psychotic Reaction, and The Vampires (both from Germany). You can even check out the Break-a-way website for sound samples from all these bands to see what's great and what's not.

Los Young Beats go into the great column with this release. Los Young Beats were influenced by all the great 60s artists. They were given the chance to record this record full of their covers which was a rare thing for Colombian bands in 1966, so this record is an incredible time capsule from that time and place.

Tiempos, Ellas Estan Cambiando was full of covers from the likes of Them, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Beatles, and The Yardbirds. Half the album was recorded in English and the other half in Spanish. Tracks that get the English treatment and are super fine include Baby Please Don't Go, Money, Not Fade Away, and You Really Got Me. Stellar guitar, lead vocals and solid rhythms all encapsulate the best Los Young Beats covers.

There's also a less than perfect version of You Better Move On in English. The Spanish language tracks don't fare as well with a slow garage version of The Times Are A-Changing (a weird song to do garage style even if the lyrical content was true), and sweet but not wholly inspired versions of Hang On Sloopy and As Tears Go By. Their version of Hearts Of Stone works a little better, but the best of the Spanish language tracks are the killer versions of Gloria (a fairly straight reading) and For Your Love (killer beat and farout vocals send this one flying).

The Time Machine were a related band from when Los Young Beats broke up in 1967, with Fernando Cordoba and Roberto Fiorelli from the original band. With The Time Machine they headed towards a more distorted guitar sound on English language covers of Fire (where they rewrite the Hendrix lyrics somewhat comically) and a fuzzed out version of Train Kept A Rollin (the best of the 4 tracks).

There's also the slower Dylan cover Just Like A Woman which sounds fine musically, but vocally is kind of whiny. The ending track is a blues cover of Paul Butterfield's Your Love Is Driftin which heads them towards a B.B. King type of blues (not one of the best tracks here).