SNOG VS THE FAECAL JUGGERNAUT OF MASS CULTURE ALBUM METROPOLIS RELEASE: MAY 9, 2006 REVIEW: MAY 28, 2006

Since 1991, the Australian entity that is Snog have been conducting their own quiet, yet enjoyable, little war against big business, capitalism and consumerism in the best way possible: with satire. From their very beginnings with the breakthrough club classic "Corporate Slave" through the spaghetti Western plateau of albums like "Buy Me... I'll Change Your Life" and back to the digital insurgency of "Third Mall From the Sun", David Thrussell and company always somehow come at the listeners in a way they haven't heard. Then came the last album, 2003's "Beyond the Valley of the Proles". It appeared that redundancy had set in with the lacerating of consumer culture finally reducing Snog to a parody.

Now with this new album having the surname "Synthetic Melodies for Resistance", I had my doubts and was wondering if I would be better off waiting for new albums with the side projects: a new Black Lung, or more tantalizingly, a new Soma album (hint hint). But, happily, I was proven wrong. This Oz outfit are back on track, with more than a passing comparison to "Dear Valued Customer" being valid. "Crash Crash" bumps along on a massive bass beat overlayed by some IDM-ish pops and crackles. The female backing vocals on this one just make it soar.

"Bourgeois" is classic Snog, from before they embraced Lee Hazelwood and Johnny Cash. A solid dance assault that glides effortlessly on sinewy layers of electro misanthropy. "Planet of Shit" is my current favourite with its maniacal bassline careening the listener right over the cliffs. "I'd love to love you but I just can't do it", David laments. I'll bet.

"Neighbour of the Beast" is downright hip hop bastardized by the Snog manifesto of cataclysmic, hybridized pop culture hell. This track is mixed loudly, almost to the point of saturating any sound system it conquers. "Don't go Down to the Woods Today" is hilarious! Is it the Brothers Grimm or Jonathan Swift he's channeling? Only he knows. Given a show tune makeover, "Al Qaeda Is Your Best Friend" resurrects the excellent Snog tradition of having sampled audience noise to give the work a "live" feel. These are some of the best lyrics Thrussell has yet written, and not just on this song but throughout the entire album.

Concluding with a melodramatic number that would be the envy of Henry Mancini (rip), "A Hymn for the Fascist Republic" brings down the curtain with it's silky strings and emphatic, pulsating cinematic delivery.

Crash Crash.

PETER MARKS

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