Snog – Jaded [Lightarmour Editions]

Independent label Lightarmour Editions presents JADED, a clutch of fresh remixes and material from Australia’s infamous Electronica & Industrial act Snog. Taken from the acclaimed Eight Offerings For The Undead LP, Jaded has been given a playful Grimecore reconfiguration by Brisbane’s Nam Shub Of Enki, a bottom-heavy Industrial-Latina strip-down by Birmingham’s mysterious Sir Real, and Dark Electronic Pop & EBM workouts by Lightarmour Editions. The 6-track EP is rounded off with exclusive John Carpenter-ish instrumental The Theme From ‘The Great Reset’ with its throbbing analog-synth momentum.

Beloved by iconic figures like Wikileaks’ Julian Assange and Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, David Thrussell is a true antipodean subterranean. Provocative and controversial, Thrussell has carved an epic underground career as an electronic musician, film composer, filmmaker and writer. Working with electro-conspiracy-pop as Snog, hauntological-avant-club-electronics as Black Lung or in numerous other guises, Thrussell has played with Kraftwerk, remixed Aphex Twin, headlined festivals as farafield as Poland and Japan, performed in East German castles and Roman amphitheatres and privately Deejayed for Quentin Tarantino and other iconic figures.

Over almost 3 decades his Snog moniker has garnered a profound international underground reputation, charting in alternative and club charts in Germany and the U.S.A and headlining festivals from Japan to Eastern Europe and beyond. Snog has at various points received substantial college radio play (and even fleeting mainstream radio play) in the U.S and across Europe. Tracks like ‘Corporate Slave’ (a left-field club and MTV hit in Germany and the U.S), ‘The Human Germ’ (a college radio hit in the U.S and synced in a couple of feature films), ‘The Last Days Of Rome’ (a presence on mainstream radio in the U.S) and ‘Cheerful Hypocrisy’ (tweeted repeatedly by Julian Assange just before his incarceration) have lodged Snog in the counter-cultural biosphere. Snog has toured the world, played live on Japanese TV to audiences of millions and been tailed by the CIA (yes, seriously).

Though at home in the shadows, his Black Lung project is also not without notable successes. Early Black Lung albums were edgy club chart hits in France, Italy and other European territories, one of the most recent Black Lung albums (Muzak From The Hive Mind – released on the German Ant-Zen label) debuted at #1 in the European Alternative Charts and across 2018 Black Lung headlined major European festival dates.

Pulled from the acclaimed ‘Eight Offerings For The Undead’ LP, Snog’s ‘Jaded’ has been given some ultra-fresh remix shine. Jaded is an extraordinary song, a dry Shakespearian lament disguised as misanthropic electro-rant; a cranky Salt-N-Pepa’s ‘Push It’ as mumbled by a drunken Alexei Sayle, and an obvious highlight from the 2022 LP.

The EP features some incredible remixes – a playful Grimecore reconfiguration by Brisbane’s Nam Shub Of Enki (all sparkle, guile, and digital bass-bounce) as well as a bottom-heavy Industrial-Latina strip-down by Birmingham’s mysterious Sir Real. Exclusive track The Theme From ‘The Great Reset’ echoes Thrussell’s love of late 70s/early 80s electronic soundtracks, but interestingly, also evokes a classic Post-Punk instrumental from 1981 – Simple Minds’ Theme For Great Cities.

The Theme From ‘The Great Reset’ was originally commissioned by the Swiss-based World Economic Forum’s executive chairman Klaus Schwab as an uplifting soundtrack for their renowned internationalist activism, but was ultimately rejected and sees its exclusive debut on this EP. Thrussell is a member of the WEF’s Global Young Leaders initiative and has been prominent in recent cultural leadership and governance.

Side 2 features two Lightarmour Edition remixes for songs taken from 2020’s superb ‘Lullabies for the Lithium Age’ LP; Spaetzle Machine’s latent gritty EBM edge has been amplified, and Sweet, Sweet Treacle’s melodic allure has gone all subterranean Dark Electronic Pop.

Release date: September 19th, 2022.