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The\u00a0Scientists\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0powerful brand of deranged swamp-rock returns with a vengeance on\u00a0June 11<\/strong>, when Los Angeles\u2019\u00a0In The Red Records<\/strong>\u00a0unleashes\u00a0Negativity<\/em><\/strong>, an all-new magnum opus featuring the first new full-length album by the Australian band\u2019s penultimate line-up in 35 years.<\/p>\r\n The first track\u00a0from the album,\u00a0Outsider,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0was released last month,\u00a0along with a\u00a0video<\/a><\/strong>, directed by\u00a0Andrew Watson<\/a>.\u00a0I Wasn’t Good At Picking Friends<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, the second track taken from thealbum,premiered on\u00a0Henry Rollins’ KCRW show\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>over the weekend and is out today on all digital platforms. Says\u00a0Kim Salmon<\/strong>;\u00a0“So Tony Thewlis, the Scientists lead guitarist, sends me a riff and immediately a chorus pops into my head singing \u201cBeware, the Ides Of March!\u201d.\u00a0Now this is inappropriate coz\u2019 this is a \u2018chorus\u2019, as in a Greek Tragedy, and the line\u2019s from Shakespeare\u2019s depiction of ancient Rome!\u00a0It don\u2019t matter! It’s only Rock n Roll.\u00a0I run with it.\u00a0No soothsayers,\u00a0just a chorus of female backing singers!\u00a0So what do I sing?\u00a0Well obviously!\u00a0I\u2019m Julius Caesar now and I have to turn \u201cet tu Brute\u201d into a punk rock song!\u00a0How do I do that?\u00a0Well, Tony\u2019s riff makes the racket people have come to expect from the Scientists!\u00a0Add to that equal measures of drum and bass chaos and throw in an atonal fuzz guitar solo for good measure!\u00a0Sounds like the Scientists to me!\u00a0Will the punters buy it?\u00a0We don\u2019t care!\u00a0I guess we\u2019re still the same old punks we always were\u2026..”Negativity<\/em>\u00a0is the third Scientists release and the first full-length album for In The Red. The current quartet cut the single \u201cBraindead\u201d\/\u201cSurvivalsKills\u201d in 2018 and the five-song 2019 EP\u00a09H2<\/sub>O SiO2<\/sub><\/em>, the title of which translates (in a hat tip to the lyrics of the group\u2019s classic \u201cSwampland\u201d) as\u00a0Nine Parts Water, One Part Sand<\/em>. Those recordings were issued in conjunction with the group\u2019s first two U.S. tours during that period.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n The bruising 11-track collection features a Scientists configuration much beloved by connoisseurs of the band\u2019s work: singer-guitarist\u00a0Kim Salmon<\/strong>, lead guitarist\u00a0Tony Thewlis<\/strong>, and bassist\u00a0Boris Sujdovic<\/strong>, all veterans of the group\u2019s defining 1981-85 outfit, and drummer\u00a0Leanne Cowie<\/strong>, who replaced drummer Brett Rixon on the storming 1986 release\u00a0Weird Love<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n Salmon, who founded the Scientists in Perth in 1978, says with a laugh,\u00a0\u201c\u201cMy attitude was, old bands doing new stuff, it\u2019s always rubbish. I just wanted to leave it alone. I thought, well, if we just snuck a single by every once in a while, we could get away with it.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Happily, rousing receptions during the band\u2019s American treks and a sense that fans would welcome a new full-length project resulted in sessions for\u00a0Negativity<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n The album was completed transcontinentally: With the band producing,\u00a0Myles Mumford<\/strong>\u00a0(who worked on both the earlier In the Red releases) and\u00a0Jozef Grech\u00a0<\/strong>recorded.\u00a0Negativity<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 the Scientists\u2019 first full-length collection of new material since their 1987 last bow\u00a0Human Jukebox<\/em>, recorded by a trio fronted by Salmon \u2013 is the culmination of a long journey for its four members.\u00a0In 1984, Salmon, Thewlis, Sujdovic, and Rixon, who had moved from Perth to Sydney on Australia\u2019s east coast in 1981, relocated to London to try their hand at the larger English market. Salmon, his wife Linda (who was then managing the band), and their son moved into a house also occupied by 20-year-old Cowie (then known by her maiden name, Leanne Chock).\u00a0Salmon recalls,\u00a0\u201cLinda kind of appointed Leanne to be our tour manager, and she did an amazing job of it. She really paid attention to details. And she was as much of a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll animal as Brett or Boris or Tony.\u201cWhen Brett left the band in 1985, we tried a bunch of drummers. The thing was, they were all proper musos and brought baggage to the band, and it wasn\u2019t welcome. Leanne had been teaching herself drums from what she learned from watching Brett, with no knowledge of music whatsoever. We gave her a chance, and it sounded like the band again.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n Embroiled in a conflict with their Australian label, the quartet entered a London studio with producer Richard Mazda in mid-1985 and re-recorded several of their old hits in an attempt to reclaim their catalog. The resultant Karbon Records album, the ferocious\u00a0Weird Love<\/em>, became the only Scientists record to see contemporaneous American release when it was issued by Big Time Records\u2019 U.S. imprint in 1986. By that time, Cowie had exited the group, which called it quits the following year.\u00a0However, you can\u2019t keep a good Scientist down, and in 2004 Salmon, Thewlis, and Sujdovic booked some live dates employing hired hands on drums. Salmon says, \u201cWhen we got to Sydney, for the encores we got Leanne up. And people were saying, \u2018Hey, get her back in the band!\u2019 We thought, OK, if we do it again, we\u2019ll get her. Leanne is part of the Scientists\u2019 essential chemistry.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Over the course of the next 15 years, the reconstituted Scientists returned to the stage and the studio. In 2006, they played the All Tomorrow\u2019s Parties festival in London; a concurrent date at the Shepherd\u2019s Bush Empire was recorded and released as\u00a0Sedition<\/em>\u00a0in 2007.<\/p>\r\n The Numero Group\u2019s comprehensive four-CD box of 2016,\u00a0A Place Called Bad<\/em>\u00a0and the label\u2019s subsequent LP reissue of\u00a0Weird Love<\/em>\u00a0ignited wide acclaim and refreshed interest in the group, and prefaced the association with In the Red.\u00a0The present situation of band members in two far-flung countries has led to some changes in both writing and record production for the Scientists.<\/p>\r\n As in earlier years, Salmon is still the principal songwriter, but now all hands contribute to the material.\u00a0Salmon\u2019s interest in drumming has played a large role in that reorientation.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve been sort of teaching myself drums over the years, and I\u2019m probably still the world\u2019s worst drummer,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Salmon says.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve been sort of jamming beats all along. I kind of cook \u2018em up in my head, just getting a good groove going. I\u2019d jam away on the drums in a practice room, and if I got something good that I could sing to, I\u2019d start recording myself and send it over to Tony and wait for him to send me a riff back. And that\u2019s how we wrote most of the album. I realized after the fact that Tony should be the riffmaster.\u201cGenerally what happened was, Tony sent the riffs back, and then Leanne, Boris, and I got together, and the three of us knocked the songs into shape. That\u2019s how everybody\u2019s name got on the songs. In that part of the recording, Leanne does take a very active role. Once you start talking about form, how you\u2019re going to execute it, she\u2019s very much part of the writing process. They\u2019re all part of it.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Raw, freewheeling, and spattered with the high-voltage sound the Scientists have drawn from such influences as the Stooges, Suicide, the Gun Club, and the Cramps,\u00a0Negativity<\/em>\u00a0is jubilant, unpredictable listening.\u00a0A solid crop of fresh originals is highlighted by the opening statement of purpose\u00a0\u201cOutsider\u201d<\/em>; the offbeat, yowling waltz\u00a0\u201cNaysayer\u201d<\/em>; the hilarious, self-mocking\u00a0\u201cThe Science Of Suave,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0which Salmon says was inspired by the work of his countrymen the Moodists; and the utterly surprising\u00a0\u201cMoth-Eaten Velvet,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0a Velvet Underground homage in ballad form that features a three-piece string section.<\/p>\r\n Instrumental guests on the album include producer Mumford, who contributes trombone on\u00a0\u201cMake It Go Away,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and Salmon\u2019s daughter Emma, who essays piano and background vocals.\u00a0In all,\u00a0Negativity<\/em>\u00a0is a typically bracing, unpredictable, wild, and\u00a0loud<\/em>\u00a0affair that will engross both longtime Scientists aficionados and new arrivals as well.\u00a0Offering a summation, Salmon says, \u201cPeople think of the \u201880s as being keytars and mullet haircuts, but there was another side to all of that, and we were part of it. This record is another thing again. It is like a contemporary version of the Scientists of the \u201880s. To me, that\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \u00a0Tracklisting:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ymlpcl6.com\/imgz\/waab_scientistsnegativityfrontcover3--1.jpg\")
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