February 18, 1999
Two minutes into this CD, I shut off the stereo and ran to the store to buy a stack of blank tapes to make copies for everyone I know. This fascinating album, the group's first and only, was originally released in 1980 and sounds quite unlike anything before or since.
One of the most triumphant examples of post-punk's radical innovation, Colossal Youth is music stripped of skin, fat and muscle - just bare bleached bone arrangements of barely perceptible drum machine, wisps of organ and a smattering of guitar. It's as if the songs are implied rather than expressed, the coolly minimalist sound making Alison Statton's ice water vocals stand out in stark relief.
Philip Moxham's probing, funky bass gives these skeletal songs their surprising power, making "Wurlitzer Jukebox" and "Brand-New-Life" almost danceable and giving "Music For Evenings" and "Credit in the Straight World" (yes, the one covered by Hole) their haunting melodies. All these song-sketches are roughly two minutes long, but are full-formed intellectual and musical statements that leave you hungry for more. Sparse, smart and riveting, the album exudes an eerie midnight languor akin to REM's Murmur, with a clean, dub-like production which sounds like Stereolab's Emperor Tomato Ketchup without the organ drones. (Both Michael Stipe and Stereolab have expressed admiration for Young Marble Giants, and the influence is clear.)
Stuart Moxham's sharp songwriting recalls David Byrne with its cerebral detachment, but the simple direct melodies keep you drawn in. This uniquely seductive minimalist pop landmark can be difficult to find, but is well worth the hunt - I bought it on NME's web site and hereby command you to do the same. You won't regret it.
- Jared O'Connor
coolly minimalist