I had to do a quick double-take upon listening to this latest six track download-only EP from Snog, as I was suddenly hit by the realisation that David Thrussell and his band of fellow pranksters must have recently celebrated their twentieth birthday, or at least must soon be about to. If anything, ‘Everything Is Under Control’, the first taste of Snog’s upcoming album ‘Babes In Consumerland’ highlights the satirical pop heart that’s always been present at the centre of the collective’s politically barbed approach. As the title suggests, ‘Everything Is Under Control’ lyrically targets the populace “mesmerised, brutalised into silence†by the numbing mass media, with Thrussell dropping most of the obvious processing from his vocal against a stripped-down backing of Glitter Band-esque drum machine beats, twinkling synth riffs and icy pads.
For the most part, the four remixes on offer here adhere fairly closely to the stripped-down 4/4 electro template. Midnight Juggernauts member Spiderface offers up an extended ambient-dub intro on his reworking that sends eerie washes of sound rolling against dripping water textures before things suddenly resolve themselves around a tight 4/4 kickdrum pulse and a poppy backdrop of jittery electro synths. Elsewhere, Sir Real gets deeper and techier with his remix, sending graceful retro-house piano keys rippling against murmuring synthetic bass and pulsing, subtle rhythms, but the most intriguing moment on this EP arrives with instrumental non-album track ‘Lament Of The Lost Sheep’, which takes thing into a nightmarish landscape of orchestration and tolling church bells worthy of the most dystopian sci-fi film, only for things to fade out with the distant sound of baa-ing sheep. Characteristically dark and funny in equal doses, ‘Everything Is Under Control’ should keep the Snog fanbase more than satisfied.
