That’s woken me up. Two songs into this album from Italian electro rock band Appaloosa and the blood is coursing through my veins. I have to say that electro rock albums aren’t really my thing but this one did the trick for me and, while the songs might be mostly instrumentals, they are big, muscular - even macho – and they hit the mark with deadly accuracy.
As you might expect given the band’s country of origin, there are a solid references back to seventies European prog rock and at times – such as in “Boston Gigi” – you could be mistaken for thinking that you were listening to one of Goblin’s soundtracks to a Dario Argento film. The thing is that a band can get away with retro if they have fun with it and Appaloosa manage to sound like they are having fun. Solid guitar riffs are liberally sprinkled on top of the finest in analogue synth sound impersonations and pounding drums leaving the sparingly used vocals to drift in and out of your head leaving a big smile on your face.
If this were the sixties then I reckon Appaloosa would be classified as a “head” band. They would be the kind of band with a cult following that could still headline at an open air festival. So while they are undoubtedly influenced by the past and even have a retro electro rock sound, they have nonetheless delivered an album that works. Listen to it once or listen to it ten times and it will still work. That’s plenty good enough for me.