Five albums in and Italian band Appaloosa continue to walk their own path. Electro rock is hardly unusual from that part of the world and “The Worst Of Saturday Night”, on the surface at least, follows the trend. However, Appaloosa are more intelligent than most and take the practice of discord and use it to derail their songs into the unexpected.
“Calibriou” gets things up to pace with edgy repetition and chopped up vocals indicating that old habits die hard. “Beef Oven” manages to be bluesy and sequenced all at the same time although I did spend more time wondering what exactly a beef oven might be. Things really heat up, however, with the manic, probably dance floor targeted, “Lull” that sounds derived from eighties New York nightclubs and “Western” which sounds inspired by sleazy seventies giallo soundtracks. It is a mark of this band’s quality that they can do their own thing whilst taking diversions into familiar basements when the mood takes them.
In many ways, “The Worst Of Saturday Night” is album that provokes thought rather than an emotional response with those neat little sonic touches lifting things well above the European electro rock average whilst never losing sight of the importance of melody. Respect is therefore duly given.