In the many years after
Scientists split in 1987, the group's leader
Kim Salmon pursued a wide range of musical activities including solo work, psychedelic trip-hop, acoustic folk, and noisy pop. When he re-formed
Scientists in 2016, it was clear that he was ready to get back to making some serious skronking noise again. With the 1986 lineup of the band (guitarist Tony Thewlis, bassist Boris Sujdovic, and drummer Leanne Cowie) in tow,
Scientists toured, then revisited the recording studio with the initial results -- a couple of singles and the 2019 EP 9H₂O.SiO₂ -- being quite promising. Fans of the group's devastating blend of swampy guitars, gritty-as-quicksand vocals, swaggering rhythms, and dark tales of heartbreaking woe will be glad to know that all those elements are in place to a large degree on their first post-comeback album,
Negativity.
Salmon's vocals are commanding and limber; he hasn't lost any of his innate ability to completely take over a song with a sneer and a grunted aside. The rest of the bandmembers sound invested and as tough as ever. Drummer Cowie pushes the band with simple force, Sudjovic's bass playing is rock-solid, and the swashbuckling guitar work of Thewlis and
Salmon is as dangerously electric as a downed power line. When they all lock into place, as on the buzzsaw rocker "Outsider" or the careening "Seventeen," it's as if no time has passed and the band are still in a dingy mid-'80s club, sweating it out for the true believers.
Although much of the album sounds like it was ripped out of the past kicking and screaming, there are some new elements to the sound that make for an interesting update. First off,
Salmon's lyrics are a little more humorous and arch than in the past. He sounds less like he's in the throes of being swallowed alive by life and more like he's on the other side of trouble, looking back with sarcasm and rueful humor. Secondly, little sonic touches show up for the first time on a
Scientists album, like the female backing vocals on "I Wasn't Good at Picking Friends" that make it sound like a Brill Building song if the Brill Building was located on skid row. Other neat twists are the strings on "Moth-Eaten Velvet" that give the ballad some louche atmosphere, the Baroque chord changes that come from nowhere on the chorus of "Make It Go Away," and the array of vocal howls, drunken recitations, and desperate pleadings that turn "Outerspace Boogie" from a warped slice of flat-tire boogie rock into a vocal showcase for
Salmon. It all adds up to an impressively energetic and enjoyable return to the fray. It's exceedingly rare for a band to come back after decades away and make something that measures up to what they were doing when they left off.
Scientists have done that on
Negativity, and that's something to celebrate. ~ Tim Sendra