Correcto Correcto by: Ed Butler Tue:19-Feb-08 Label: Domino Year: 2008 WB rating 60 out of 100

There is a young, up-and-coming Melbourne band, let's call them 'Fufu Bunny and the Giggle Snorfers', who made a foray into the UK music scene recently. Firing off tapes to many labels, they felt their sound was fresh enough to cut through the drivel that dominates much of the British indie charts. However, they were repeatedly knocked back, as their singer's voice, deep and gruff, full of body and character, was, apparently, not what people wanted to listen to right now.

One assumes that all UK labels are searching for another Alex Turner: accented, nasal and capable of piercing sheet metal. This line of thinking is almost certainly what scored Correcto their debut album deal. The band’s frontman, Danny Saunders, has the heavily accented Glaswegian whine that is currently in vogue (of course, having Franz Ferdinand’s drummer Paul Thompson and Patrick Doyle from The Royal We proffering their services wouldn’t hurt when garnering a contract).

Musically, Correcto reside on a plane somewhere between Thompson’s Ferdinand and Sonic Youth. There is a distinct grunge/shoegaze sound filtering through the overt British-ness, a barely suppressed chaos that recalls Thurston Moore’s thrashing guitar and Kim Gordon’s snaky bass lines. Perhaps Correcto can be viewed as the anti-Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, at least that band’s early incarnation. Where BRMC were three dudes from LA who grew up on a diet of Morrissey, The Cure and Jesus and Mary Chain – but couldn’t quite escape inflecting their tunes with a distinct west coast vibe – Correcto, who hail from the same town as Jesus and Mary Chain, are informed by masters of early ‘90s American indie rock, a debt owed to the lo-fi magic of Slanted and Enchanted or Daydream Nation.

Unfortunately though, much like BRMC, throwing such disparate elements into a glass and shaking furiously does not a tasty drink make. Such a heady brew would require a balancing act which is yet to be perfected, combining two nation’s trademark sounds from an era where the powerhouse musical countries could not have been further apart. To be fair, at no point on Correcto does it feel as if it’s an intentional attempt to pair these sounds. It’s just that the original jam sessions from which the album presumably arose are all over the songs here, and what came out is all the innumerable influences that any proud music nerd would absorb over the course of a lifetime.

When it does all click though, it’s tremendous. ‘Downs’, with its rapid fire drumming, slinky bass and chiming guitars, is everything great about Pavement’s slacker legacy and the new-wave British scene distilled into a burst just over two minutes long. Two other highlights, 'Joni' and 'Do It Better', which has a distinct Maxïmo Park feel, also both clock in at well under the three minute mark. In fact, the whole album’s 12 songs are finished in just over 30 minutes, brevity inherited from Britpop tradition of trimming the fat.

Correcto, for a side project of a drummer of a famous band, is an impressive effort. The songs are routinely catchy, upbeat power-pop. And most importantly, there is enough music here that is defiantly unlike anything floating around in 2008 – the intercontinental sound that jumps out of the speakers unique enough to reward repeat listens. It may have been a lucky break, requiring a few contacts unavailable to other struggling bands to get the record deal in the first place, but Thompson and Co. have done some justice to the opportunity they’ve been given, and there is a chance that given time to hone their sound, some really terrific music could come out of Correcto in the future.