A good, reliable record label is a rare thing. When a label carefully constructs a roster of artists, you grow to trust it and become willing to take a chance on something simply because the label has given it the thumbs up. Motown, Invisible and WaxTrax! all built reputations around themselves that immediately invoked a sense of what one of their bands would be like, without ever slipping over the line into blind formulaic "product". To this list, I'm going to have to add Metropolis, who are behind yet another pick-worthy CD (I promise to lay off after this). So on to this week's review...

Snog consists of David Thrussell (Black Lung, Soma) and Pieter Bourke (Soma), who twiddle knobs and twist samples to create a rainbow of electronic music. On this remix disc, various fiends (including Thrussell and Bourke themselves) take their turns with the duo's tracks. The results could easily be compared to the Aphex Twin, as beats skip between speakers and squiggles build into teetering towers of joy. However, unlike Richard James' studied, abstract approach, Snog's music has a strong social theme, targeting the homogeneity of consumerism and Western culture -- for example, the disc's back cover sports a "McDonald's Vishnu", a many-armed employee offering up fat-laden snacks. While vocals are kept to a minimum, these sorts of images provide a launching point for listeners to consider as they devour the music.

And devour it they will. Pulling in dashes of trip-hop ("The Crumbling Land"), ambient ("The Infernal Advocate") and traditional Eastern music ("Are You Normal Enough?"), the band and its remixers keep things varied and alive. Sometimes the results are disturbing -- "State Rape" sounds as harsh as its name. On the flip-side of the coin, bouncy tracks such as "The Last Diamond" and "The Real Estate Man" are downright cute.

By using the entire spectrum of electronic music, the Australian duo has created an album which is immediately engaging, and grows more satisfying and interesting through repeated listening. If Metropolis continues to house bands like Snog, I predict great things will happen.