For the Tai Gu Tales group, which blends Western-style new-age and contemporary dance routines with more traditional Oriental dance standards like Taoist and Buddhist religious dances, Snell has had to create even more mellow cross-cultural new-age compositions with an industrial edge.
A reworking of Snell's 2002 Final Om sees him combining East Asian mantras with synchronized electronic loops and heavy reverberating vocals over a backdrop of traditional Chinese and Asian instrumentation.
Instead of going for the throat, however, Snell chooses to creep up on his listeners with a mesmerizing wall of sound that lulls listeners. The tune lulls the listener in but never lets them quite relax. And even with the inclusion of traditional Chinese instruments and precise and soothing rhythms there remains something evil and quintessentially industrial about the soundtrack.
"When you work in different cultures you have to act like a sponge, not a wet rag," said Snell. "You take in and absorb what's going on and then you adapt it to suit your own style, which in this case is new-age with an industrial edge."
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