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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Expanded edition of cult band's output, 1 July 2007
Young Marble Giants didn't exist for very long, from 1978 to 1980, until their recent reformation, which appears to be a one-off I'm sad to have missed! This is another one of Domino's classic expanded reissues, up there with Sebadoh III and the Pavement double-disc sets, taking in 41 tracks that include the 25 tracks found on the previous version of Colossal Youth, and various rarities/hard to find tracks including Peel Sessions. This is the definitive version of 'Colossal Youth' and pretty much everything they recorded - though I'm sure you see the odd live LP kicking around places...
Young Marble Giants are quite an odd proposition, Alison Statton the primary singer who possibly set the tone for most indie female singers that followed, alongside the Moxham brothers (Philip and Stuart) and Peter Joyce. The sound of YMG was one that was minimal, centred around Silver Apples/Suicide-style droning keyboards, some drum machine, and minimal bass and guitar riffs. The droning keyboards seem a definite influence on Spacemen 3, while the minimal guitar/bass riffs appear to have heavily influenced the sound of Seventeen Seconds by The Cure - which I'm sure someone like Simon Reynolds has identified in the past. Belle and Sebastian covered 'Final Day' for the enjoyable Rough Trade artists covering Rough Trade artists compilation 25, while Hole have also covered 'Credit in the Straight World' (as badly as they did 'The Void' by The Raincoats!!). Michael Stipe and Peter Buck from REM have also dropped their name, like The Au Pairs, The Mekons, and The Raincoats, they are the less celebrated side of the eclectic post-punk scene...when will Domino reissue that Raincoats debut again?
Colossal Youth has a melodic pop song quality often, though the minimal guitar and bass riffs akin to 'Skank Bloc Bologna' by Scritti Politti make it feel unpop. 'Eating Noddemix' is a typical example of this, sounding like a collision of The Field Mice and Swell Maps...which can only be a wonderful thing? The previous version of CY I own is the 25 track version from the late 90s, and that is one LP that I have come back to several times, like Double Nickels on the Dime, Jane in Occupied Europe and Trout Mask Replica, it's an epic set that comes across with each listen. So many great songs, a sequence that you'll just have to hear - though if singling out faves, I'd have to mention 'Eating Noddemix', the nuclear apocalypse of 'Final Day', the opening 'Searching for Mr Right', and the catchy 'Credit in the Straight World.'
This 41 track version of 'Colossal Youth' includes not only that great LP and Peel Sessions, but also the 'Final Day', 'Salad Days', and 'Testcard' reissues. This is shaping up to be the reissue of 2007 and is a reminder that bands who are kind of a one-off, can produce a classic equal to all those usual suspects. Colossal Youth remains one of the peaks of the post punk scene and I think it's one of those albums that has to be owned...
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still Colossal Youths, 17 July 2007
I have just spent the afternoon in perfect bliss, stretched out on my bed, the warm Brunei sun beating down. This little corner of South-East Asia, an enchanted place thanks to the beautiful sounds of YMG. 'Fresh as a daisy', this is a truely timely and wonderful collection, that doesn't sound one bit it's 27 years. Released in 1980 it's aged far better than most of the postpunk releases of that era. The production, or often, lack of production is the key. That and the mesmerick musical interplay between the Moxham Brothers, and laid-back and 'undersung' vocals of Alison Statton.
The flame didn't burn long for YMG, but it did burn brightly. All their recorded work can now be heard on this collection. The original LP, the 'Final Day' 3-track single, 6-track 'Testcard EP' and the 'Salad Days' CD of demos & home recordings. Get the 3-disc set for the added delight of the band's John Peel Session, then you have pretty much everything the band recorded. Add to that extensive sleeve notes by Simon Reynolds (author of 'Rip It Up And Start It Again' Postpunk 1978-84 - a brilliant read) and it becomes the complete package. Well done Domino for the re-issue.
It's minimalist & by turns complex, but ultimately just a delight. The band members went on to other ventures (Gist, Weekend, solo stuff)- but for me it's this material and it's timeless nature that stands out head and shoulders above so much music, back in 1980 and also today. Kurt Cobain loved them, so did Peely and I'm sure you will too.
Somewhere in storage in Germany is my original Rough Trade copy of the vinyl LP and the 7" singles. It's so good to have them all here, floating and glistening in the Brunei sunshine. A delightful and essential purchase, and at under a tenner, you have to take the plunge.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seminal post punk album gets the deluxe re-issue treatment , and quite right too., 16 July 2007
Young Marble Giants were a post punk band formed in Cardiff in 1978 who recorded only two EP,s -"Final Day " and "Testcard" and one album before splitting in 1980.That is actually far more punk than any amount of spitting , posturing and snarling . The album Colossal Youth was recorded over four days and is one of those invincible albums that is perfect in every sense. Even the sequencing of the tracks seems faultless.
The band were signed to "Rough Trade " records after recording on the compilation "Is The War Over" on Cardiff label "Z Block" records and were always a vaguely curious proposition . Brothers Stuart and Philip Moxham provided the music's deceptively simple guitars lines , terse rhythms and repetitive keyboard arrangements .Stuart wrote most of the bands material but the strange attributes of the bands music were aided by singer Alison Statton , who nowadays would sound conventional but then sounded like something from Greek mythology . Curiously she stills sound refreshingly blank and extraterrestrial . Early fourth member Peter Joyce, the Moxhams cousin , was an electronic wizard and in the same way as Eno did for early Roxy Music gave the music insidious textures and atonal sounds. He also provided the bands drum machine and this again gave the music a slightly surreal ambience , though with Moxhams writing always focussed on simplicity the songs weren't half as strange as they could have been.
This re-issue , and incidentally it's not the first time this album has been re-issued , contains those two EP.s , Peel sessions and The" Salad Days "album of outtakes originally released in 2000 . I always prefers to listen to Colossal Youth as a separate entity to the other stuff as somehow it tarnishes the albums perfection. Not that there is anything wrong with the other material, some if it is a but sketchy and mutable . but there is also much to treasure as well. "Final Day" is the most reflective and effective anti-nuclear song ever written .The most astonishing thing about this album is that here were a band that instinctively knew that the time had come to strips things back , to turn things down , the album even starts with silence and fades in with "Searching For Mister Right" , and they knew how to incubate insidious melody into that sound .Every scratchy guitar , every fat drop of that bass seems perfectly placed yet they realised that the space that lies between the notes, and Stattons monotone vocals is just as important.
Plus there are little hints of so many other musical genres in here , reggae , jazz and with "The Taxi" a precursor to the electronic revolution that would sweep over British music in the early eighties. A seriously brilliant and important album and one that gets overlooked too often , not least by myself as I tend to go for the more emotionally engaging and conventional albums in my collection when venting my critical spleen. ( Not that Colossal Youth isn't emotionally engaging -it is , just in a more abstract way)Young Marble Giants are a band probably more famous ( or should that be in-famous ) for being one of Kurt Cobains favourites but they are so much more than that and hopefully this essential re-issue will go some way to re-dressing the balance . If you haven't heard this album , rectify your mistake -the sooner the better.
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