(Domino)

The three CDs that comprise the Young Marble Giants' recorded legacy come wrapped in a flimsy slipcover. But that's all right, because the music itself is as lasting as stone.

For those new to the postpunk trailblazers, this may not be immediately apparent. Casual listeners might dismiss Alison Statton's wispy singing as insubstantial, while the instrumental combination of Philip Moxham's trebly bass, his brother Stuart's clipped guitar, and an almost comically rudimentary drum machine is simplicity incarnate. Pay attention, however, and the steel in Statton's vocal stance begins to shine through, while Stuart's songs are revealed as miniature film scripts, encoded in a mixture of strikingly vivid verbal images and impenetrable childhood slang.

Simon Reynolds's liner notes help decipher Stuart's gnomic songcraft, and his interviews with the band members shed considerable light on the Giants' birth, development, and death which took place over just three years: 1979 to 1981.

It's fascinating to read, for instance, that Stuart felt frustrated by his band's hushed aesthetic. "A lot of those riffs would sound great on loud, distorted guitars in a conventional band," he contends, and Young Marble Giants devotee Kurt Cobain certainly seemed to agree: it's easy to hear the terse opening riff to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as a Moxham homage. Cobain never got around to recording his favourite YMG song, "Credit in the Straight World", but Courtney Love did, and the tune didn't suffer from being given the grunge treatment.

Whether nonfans and newcomers really need the 31 demos, outtakes, instrumentals, and John Peel Sessions bonuses included in this triple-disc set is arguable. But the Giants' sole full-length, Colossal Youth, stands as one of the finest and most durable recordings of its era, and this package is affordable enough that everyone might as well own the works.