Young Marble Giants

You have to hand it to Domino: these guys know how to do a reissue right. On the label’s latest, Young Marble Giant’s Colossal Youth and Collected Works, no rock is left unturned as Domino gives one of the most admired post-rock bands of the ’80s an extensive triple-disc makeover. Complete with the band’s only full-length, BBC sessions, demos and singles — not to mention a 30-page booklet with liner notes by Simon Reynolds — this collection is thorough and, above all, necessary. With little more than a rumbling bass, trebly guitar, some floating vocals and a muffled drum machine, YMG emerged with a dry, bare-bones aesthetic that would go on to teach generations of musicians that the notes you don’t play are often as important as the ones you do. And rest assured, this collection is not simply some dusty history lesson — Colossal Youth sounds as important in 2007 as it likely did in 1980. As this reissue again proves, Young Marble Giants were, and are, true originals, with a sound that defies comparisons, a quality that encompasses truly great music.