Young Marble Giants

Earlier today it occurred to me that I was blogging too much politics and not enough pop culture. Before I could figure out how to correct that, the question answered itself. I discovered that the Young Marble Giants catalog has gotten a more complete and higher profile release than it's ever had before.

Young Marble Giants were a band out of Cardiff, Wales, during the late '70s and early '80s. Like most of the lower-profile music of the time, I read about it before I actually heard it, but when I came across their one-and-only-album, Colossal Youth, released in both the UK and the U.S. on Rough Trade, it more than held up to my expectations. Before there was reasonable international distribution of British music mags, and certainly before there was an Internet, it was hard to follow the ins and outs of Brit music trends. We'd allowed punk to evolve into "new wave" in this country, so we weren't really aware of such niceties as "post-punk." Most of the new groups were brash and loud, so the idea of a minimalist and subdued Young Marble Giants was quite intriguing, indeed. Two brothers, Stuart and Philip Moxham on guitar, bass, and organ, and Alison Statton on vocals promised an entirely different experience of music for the time. When I finally came across the album, the songs were great, but what I immediately noticed was the power of the music. Soft, quiet, and containing a strength that was sometimes overwhelming.

I found a used copy of the Rough Trade CD, which also included an EP of instrumentals. Although I can't put my hands on it at the moment, I'm relatively certain that I got another CD version that had material from a half dozen or so more songs. But on Tuesday, Domino released a new, even more complete version of Colossal Youth that has all that and more, including demos and outtakes. The first pressings will also include an extra disc of six tracks recorded for John Peel's radio show. Domino has been doing a great job of going back to find and reissue some of the great, somewhat obscure material from the early 80s such as Orange Juice's The Glasgow School, Josef K, the Triffids, and Fire Engines, so it's hardly a surprise that they'd give Young Marble Giants a go. For more information on the band, take a look at this semi-official site. If I can find a record store that hasn't gone out of business, I'm going to pick this up as soon as I can.