It’s perhaps fitting that this release – despite its significance – should be slipping out with minimal fanfare and only limited attention. Like his music and career as a whole, Moxham is the encapsulation of understatement. Chances are hardly anyone even know who he is, despite the seminal status of the band he formed in the late 70s – Young Marble Giants. Their catalogue was as sparse as their music, and their reputation one which spread slowly and by almost subterranean means, rhizome-like.
During their three-year existence they released a couple of EPs and the album ‘Colossal Youth’ on Rough Trade, which naturally provided a degree of kudos, but not necessarily the recognition they deserved. But this was the post-punk era, and YMG were different – arguably the first minimal lo-fi bedroom-pop act. Drum machines hadn’t really taken off at that point outside of certain circles, and certainly not in the context they were using them.
They became one of those bands in the 80s and 90s people would reference to show their erudition, but their reputation likely far exceeded their real reach, and the cover version of ‘Credit in the Straight World’ included in Hole’s ‘Live Through This’ was probably the first time many actually heard a song of theirs. It’s a good cover, but it sounds like Hole, and is a world away from the understated, introverted music the band made. So much of Young Marble Giants’ appeal is the atmosphere – and it’s that which shines through on this compilation.
Post Young Marble Giants, Stuart Moxham’s release schedule has been sporadic, punctuated by lengthy gaps. The band came back together for a handful of performances between 2003 and 2015, but there were no new recordings and there is no prospect of further activity.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, as they say, and their reputation seems to continue to grow… and yet, in keeping with Moxham’s and the band’s career, there seems to have been little by way of clamour over the release of archive recordings in recent years. But there are clearly people who want them, and ‘Fabstract’ marks the final dredging of the vaults, excavating a wealth of recordings previously considered lost. Featuring material from the YMG era and subsequently – including songs recorded while Moxham helmed The Gist in the early 80s – ‘Fabstract’ is a substantial document which showcases a unique songwriting talent. But more than that, the inclusion of countless offcuts and snippets, fragments of tryouts and tests from organ messabouts to acoustic sketches, means that this collection provides an insight into creative processes.
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Most of the songs are short – a couple of minutes or so, some even under a minute – but there are some more conventionally-formed works which showcase the quintessential early 80s jangly indie style (‘Night by Night’ could be a demo by Thee Smiths, only with better vocals) and there’s both variety and quality here. In fact, the quality is remarkable not only of the recordings, given their age, but of the songs. Moxham’s vaults are rich with jewels which surpass the releases of many major artists
‘Fabstract’ is so much more than an archival dump to raise a bit of cash off the back of former glories: it’s a rare example of giving the world vital recordings it had been missing but didn’t know about. Their emergence is a cause for celebration.
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