Young Marble Giants
Young Marble Giants
Stereo, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
There is a sound reason why the singular post-punk minimalism of Cardiff's Young Marble Giants has not been much replicated in the 34 years since the trio released their sole album, Colossal Youth, on Rough Trade. Although Stuart Moxham's songs matched quirky lyricism with hooky little tunes, the spare style in which he played them with brother Philip on bass while Alison Statton sang requires a deceptively high level of skill.
Every mistake is audible, so when Moxham jokes: "It is as well we're not in James Brown's band", what that makes you notice is not the admission of fallibility but how funky the underlying beat always was, even if the group's relaxed and friendly manner would not have survived JB's strict regime.
Those imperfections were always part of the charm of Young Marble Giants anyway.
Almost all of that album is aired for a packed house that knows it inside out and cheers favourite tracks, although some of them were not born when it was first released.
In truth, Statton's performance of the title track is more pitch-accurate for their first Glasgow gig than it was in the studio.
The chief difference between then and now is the addition of third Moxham brother, Andrew, operating the electronic percussion.
Previously best known to YMG fans for contributing the anagrams of the band's name that decorated the label of the instrumental Test Card EP, his physical presence only serves to make the combo look as unique as it sounds.
More recent bands of brothers, such as Kings Of Leon, should dream of being as fondly regarded by generations to come.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article