The New Pop Dialogue, ***1/2   -  by Andrew Stafford Despite the question mark over it's title, What's That Sound?, the excellent 1994 debut album by Melbourne's Snout, wasn't hard to pick. Fuelled by the twin Sixties inspirations of British beat groups and obscure American trash-rock, the band came on like a bizarre but beautiful cross between the Animals and the 13th Floor Elevators.

Snout haven't lost those influences, but essentially The New Pop Dialogue is the work of a completely different band, with guitarist Greg Ng and drummer Ewan McCarthy now completing the three piece formed by bassist and songwriter Ross McLennan. A more instinctive and challenging album than it's predecessor, The New Pop Dialogue reflects Snout's willingness to go beyond the usual boundaries of the three-minute pop tune. 

Offbeat ideas abound: on the single, "Cromagnonman", what sounds at first like a tape error is actually the band changing to 3/4 time. With it's scratchy rhythmic insistence. "You're The Right Kind" is almost funky; while "Anticipating" is a pure oddity, playing with drum loops, sawing violin and disembodied vocal effects. 

Not that The New Pop Dialogue is incomprehensible: the aggressive grooves and pretty melodies of "Sno' Flake" and "Winning Smile" stand out, and some quirky titles ("Famous People Think Up Everythng Cool"; "Benign The Benign") come close to defining Snout's playfully self-conscious aesthetic. Still, if this represents a new dialect, we'll be searching for a way to describe the sound of Snout for some time yet.  

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