If there’s any popular trend in music, it’s that of the throwback. You’ve got The Kills channeling The Velvet Underground’s raucous sixties theme, Imelda May pulling influence from rockabilly greats such as Wanda Jackson and even Lady Gaga’s more-than-obvious mirroring of Bowie’s glory days.

I find that it’s actually rarely seen in the indie scene, more so in alternative and rock’n’roll, but then along came Redondo Beat. Redondo Beat seem to me the kind of milkshake you’d get if you stuck She & Him and The Kinks in a blender - thoroughly sunshiny California-infused chamber rock, only enhanced by the prospect of long summer nights  and glitter on the ground.

Their debut, aptly titled Meet Redondo Beat is a compilation of sixties influenced rock tunes that find an instant nook in your heart and make indications that they’re there to stay for good. The album opens with the sugar-coated track “The Sweetest Sound” which employs a guitar hook and lyric that is guaranteed to stay woven in your brain cells for at least the next forty eight hours.

“But I hear a sound that really knocks me out…”

Possibly the very best thing about Redondo Beat, besides their evidently lovely instrumental makings, is that they don’t make a huge deal about their lyrics. This is best seen on the third track of the album (and coincidentally, one of the strongest), entitled “My Baby”. This little gem glitters with a definite surf rock inspired intro of thumping drums and steel guitar and is made perfect by the untroubled lyrics of, “American rock ‘n’ roll 45 / My baby knows how to have a real good time.”

Their breezy lyrics are definitely one of the greatest things about Redondo Beat. It’s appealing in that they don’t take themselves too seriously, whereas every other band surrounding them seems to be trying to prove something. They don’t need to. They know they’re good.

However, a definite and more serious tour de force is the band’s instrumental capability. Much in the same vein of Meg White’s simple-as-pie drum patterns frame the flaming guitar talent of her counterpart, Jack, Redondo Beat’s innocent lyrics contrast perfectly with a formidable force of orchestral means.

For example, take track two (“The Spell I’m Under”). The subject matter is basic - “I saw you walking down the street / With another boy.” However, it is met by a less-than-elementary choral whirlwind of iron Spanish guitar and spacey warehouse drumbeats. It picks you up, twirls you ‘round and makes for perfect head bopping material, dizzy in the ecstasy of catchy lyrics and a dangerously infectious beat.

As perhaps the strongest track on the entire album, “Full Moon Child” truly lives up to it’s name as it evokes the greatest sense of midnight mystery with an eerie retro twinge. The song jangles with its pockets full of magic, vocals soaring above and beyond the rafters. With “Full Moon Child”, I feel Redondo Beat really oversteps the mark - as in, they exceed all assumptions I had made about them previously. “Full Moon Child” helps them transcend the boundary that they could have set up in being a band very directly influenced by the rock scene of the sixties. It cements their place in the modern world in that there’s something about it that sounds so piercing, so fresh… yet it’s indefinable. That’s the kind of element that really carries a band through.

See, the trouble with having a band with a throwback sound is it’s very very easy to get trapped in a niche of sorts. Or, become sickeningly outdated by some people’s standards. There comes a point where you can only play what you can play but there’s no spark there anymore - and what I like to call the Curse of the Cover Band weighs down upon one’s head. However, this isn’t the case for Redondo Beat. Not by a long shot. As a band, they have something that really echoes throughout the blood of the listener. There’s a lot of talk of hitting the play button and getting sucked into a record, but not like this. You press play on Redondo Beat and you’re transported into this wild plethora of a place that truly does transcend time and space.

And something like that, it nestles in your heart forever.