Genre: Goth/Electronic Year: 2003 Country: USA Web: Official Site Details: Tracks & AudioLabel: Metropolis Records
There's a certain school of singer-songwriters that have a decidedly vampish cabaret aspect—only with a street trash twist. This swampy, moody stuff sounds like it's fit for a nightclub in a David Lynch film—slightly paranoid and morose, a little goth with a big dose of criminal activity and circus folk thrown in. Snog takes this tone, adds some clicks-n-cuts noise behind it and if for not one tragic flaw, could one-up everyone out there. (Well, except for master Tom Waits.) Snog is Black Heart Procession telling tales around an Aphex Twin campfire with Ennio Morricone spaghetti western basslines whistling through the trees.
David Thrussle takes the vocal reins on this Snog release and his deep coarse bass has been compared to Nick Cave and the Swans, but he also has the sly intonations of Shriekback and a bit of the old Coil in there, too. The songs on Beyond the Valley of the Proles aren't songs per say, but deeper sound collages, with strings, harpsichord strains, twanging bass and sweeping Space Mountain bleeps and whooshes all deftly competing with one another in single songs. Snog's flair for the dramatic is used well as backdrops for their nihilistic, smash-the-corporate-machine lyrics—if only the lyrics were more sophisticated.
Their electro-cabaret is a fabulous formula but it's a shame that they smash you over the head with the "message." "Welcome to Adelaide" takes on hypocrisy of authority figures but the language is so harsh, the message is lost. Same thing happens on "Justified Homicide." Instead of rallying listeners to the cause of corporate duplicity and selling out, the forced violence ("Your exploding brain would make a beautiful sound") just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It's a shame that the intelligence and subtlety of the music isn't also present in the lyrics. Not all songs are so heavy-handed, but it is a blight on the many moments of brilliance on this disk.
Snog Beyond the Valley of the Proles
