The Triffids emerged from Perth, Australia in the 80s- starting with a series of self-released (and often home-recorded) cassettes and then building their career from there. They were part perpetual also-rans, part sprawling genre-not-botherers-with (either in terms of sticking to or disregarding), and all very good indeed. Frontman David McCombs died in a car accident in 1999 at the end of a decade in which he had suffered near-constant health problems including a heart transplant.Domino have been re-issuing quite a lot of their stuff recently, starting with generally-considered “best album” (TBC by this reviewer) Born Sandy Devotional in 2006, and now here come three more Triffids-related packages from them- two re-issues (1983 debut Treeless Plain and 1989 *chortle* swansong The Black Swan) plus a brand (well, not really) new compilation of various non-album odds called Beautiful Waste: Mini-Masterpieces 1983-85 (mmmm- bitterly appropriate tagline there). They come with some pretty good liner notes too, which is nice.First things first, and Treeless Plain manages to be easily the least assuming of the bunch- a solid if hardly spectacular debut with an interview (which is HILARIOUS, btw - maybe its just how closely towards Flight Of The Conchords their accents veer, sorry Australians, but its just so sort of strained and awkward without anything actually going wrong”¦) and some session tracks (of a few of the same songs, plus a rarer track from their cassette tape days called ‘On The Street Where You Live’) at the end.The album is maybe most interesting in terms of watching the band find their feet. Despite years as lo-fi cassette recorders, McCombs’ songwriting still obviously has quite a long way to go- as seen in the lyrical clunkers marring the likes of ‘My Baby Thinks She’s A Train’ (and, to a lesser extent, the much musically better ‘Red Pony’) and the poor attempts at stylistic diversity such as ‘Old Ghostrider’. But ‘Red Pony’, ‘Branded’ and ‘Nothing Can Take Your Place’ especially are all very good indie folk-rock sort of stuff and if you like The Triffids, well this album is something you should obviously own. Established fans who already own the original album should probably stay away from the re-issue though- that is unless you don’t mind paying the cost of it again essentially for a minute-long snippet of interview and the in fairness quite good ‘On The Street Where You Live’.Beautiful Waste is a lovely compilation, and as someone who was unfamiliar with The Triffids beforehand (confession time), I couldn’t have hoped for a better introduction. Comprising the Raining Pleasure and Lawson Square Infirmary mini-albums (the latter a deliberately country-aping collaboration with some guy called James Paterson), alongside the Fields Of Glass EP, a previously unreleased song called ‘Native Bride’, a ‘Wide Open Road’ b-side, and then finally the song title track, it is, whilst admittedly overlong at one hour 5 minutes and hardly cohesive, packed with fantastic songs. Those, particularly, from Raining Pleasure (and of these especially the chilling, Jill Birt (their keyboardist)-sung title track) at the start. ‘Fields Of Glass’ (itself) and ‘Beautiful Waste’ (itself) are also pretty wonderful, as well as being very much demonstrative of The Triffids’ variety- the latter is a bouncily lovely folk-pop song, the former a 9-minute Velvet Underground/psychedelic odyssey.But of most interest, especially I would imagine to established fans, is the re-issue of The Black Swan, now expanded massively into what the press release calls “the sprawling double album that it was always intended to be.” What this means is that its actually been expanded four-fold: firstly into the double album version of The Black Swan proper on Disc 1, with lots of extra tracks added to the original record, making for a more complete, as well as more varied and absorbing, listening experience than the until-now available version ever was (having tested it out in a special ‘only original tracks’ playlist like a dutiful researcher and all). Secondly the alternate version of the same album on Disc 2, which features a few different tracks as well as some alternate, less ‘produced’ and more lo-fi recordings, of most of what’s on the album proper as well. For fans and non-fans alike, it’s a treasure trove. Not quite Crooked Rain box set level treasure trove, of course, being as it is much more cohesive and with much more repetition and all, but still, it's wonderful.The songs are very much a varied, sprawling mix of, if not exactly styles, then at least stylistic augmentations - see the near-rap verses on ‘Falling Over You’ or the 69-Love-Songs-before-69-Love-Songs-alike ‘You Minus Me’. The Disc 2 version of ‘Good Fortune Rose’ with what sounds like a Konono No.1 overdriven thumb piano on it is also pretty incredible. This is an obviously-at-the-peak-of-maturity, ‘mini-masterpiece’, all-out conceived-of-as-highlight of a songwriter’s career sort of album. A really quite brilliant, or almost-brilliant, work, lovingly packaged in the re-issue. In fact, it earns my full recommendation to fans and novices alike as a purchase that is very much worth your money (whether Beautiful Waste is a better introduction or not). Treeless Plain 69% Beautiful Waste 82% The Black Swan 88%Links The Triffids [official site]