Scientists

Kim Salmon, whose gritty vocals and aggressive guitar playing have long marked him as a pivotal personality on Australia's musical landscape, steers the Scientists. The outfit originated during the late 1970s as sharply dressed punks whose sound fused New York Dolls-style glam with ringing power pop. Early 45s such as "Frantic Romantic" and "Last Night" illustrate how effectively that combination could be executed. Following a short disbandment, the group resurfaced in the early 1980s as post-punk noise rockers whose approach drew equally from the blues and from street-level grit. The Blood Red River EP signaled their new direction, while the 1985 album You Get What You Deserve secured their standing within the noise-rock realm. After an unsatisfying period based in London and a short-lived association with an American imprint that yielded 1986's Weird Love, Salmon dissolved the lineup. Years later, after exploring numerous other musical avenues, he reassembled the 1986 configuration of Scientists in the wake of a career-spanning Numero Group box set. The musicians resumed their earlier trajectory, and following several singles plus an EP they issued the robust return album Negativity in 2021.

Salmon's earliest ensemble, assembled in 1976, was called the Cheap Nasties—an early hint of the "trash" sensibility he would cultivate in the manner of the Trashmen and the Ramones. These musicians constituted the first punk band to surface from the isolated city of Perth in Western Australia. Salmon later observed that they were not especially accomplished, yet their existence sparked the Perth punk community that would produce many of the country's most notable players. When the Nasties disbanded the next year, Salmon joined the Invaders. Scientists emerged from the remnants of that (likewise unrecorded) group in 1978. The initial roster featured Salmon handling guitar and vocals, Boris Sujdovic on bass, Rod Radalj on guitar, and James Baker—formerly of the Victims—supplying lyrics and drumming.

The band's name originated in Salmon's youthful fascination with science, particularly nuclear physics. Their debut single paired "Frantic Romantic," a weighty power-pop ballad, with "Shake (Together Tonight)," a frantic rocker clearly modeled on the New York Dolls. This incarnation toured eastern Australia and followed with a self-titled EP in 1980 that featured Ian Sharples on bass and Ben Juniper on guitar. The subsequent year the reduced trio of Salmon, Baker, and Sharples released a self-titled LP that blended jangling power pop, punk guitars, and Salmon's unmistakable sneer. Shortly thereafter the group split. Radalj and Baker relocated to Sydney, where they connected with another Perth expatriate and ex-Victim, Dave Faulkner, in a project that foreshadowed the Hoodoo Gurus. Salmon briefly formed Louie Louie with Kim Williams, producer of the first Scientists album, yet that venture lasted only months. Salmon and Sujdovic then reconstituted Scientists, with Salmon assuming primary songwriting duties. In 1981 they also relocated to Sydney. By then Salmon's interests had shifted toward American proto-punk acts such as the Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, and Television; his conception for the revamped band emphasized minimalism, reducing elements to their most basic form and eliminating any trace of affectation—extending even to lyrics he later characterized as deliberately "dumb." The outcome was raw, unhinged, feedback-heavy swamp blues carrying a suggestion of twang, as Hank Williams' influence had entered the picture as well.

The refreshed lineup—Salmon, Tony Thewlis, Brett Rixon (ex-Louie Louie), and Sujdovic—issued the EP Blood Red River in 1983 on Au-Go-Go, one of Australia's leading punk imprints. Salmon had also come under the influence of Suicide, an impact audible in the group's denser bass lines, increasingly repetitive and hypnotic rhythms, more abrasive and distorted guitars reminiscent of Link Wray, and ever more frenzied, hostile vocals. Scientists soon attracted a larger audience in Sydney than they had commanded in Perth. They maintained an active touring schedule and produced a promotional video for Blood Red River. Their next release was the equally forceful EP This Heart Does Run on Blood, This Heart Doesn't Run on Love, followed by further live dates. In 1984, mirroring the path taken by the Birthday Party and the Go-Betweens, Scientists relocated to London. They subsequently released the album Weird Love—one of their strongest—along with the EPs Demolition Derby and Atom Bomb Baby (captured live in London) and, as a single, a radically reworked version of "You Only Live Twice." Their arrival proved untimely. Apart from isolated exceptions, the British press, most prominently NME, failed to embrace them as enthusiastically as Salmon had anticipated. Because they followed the Birthday Party's trail, certain critics dismissed them as imitators despite the fact that the Scientists had been refining their own approach for an equivalent duration and from an entirely distinct lyrical and geographic standpoint.

Subsequent releases drew largely from archival sources. You Get What You Deserve (1985) gathers Atom Bomb Baby, Demolition Derby, and the B-side of "You Only Live Twice" ("If It's the Last Thing I Do"), while Heading for a Trauma mixes four new tracks with Demolition Derby, selected earlier singles, and a radio session. Drummer Rixon and Sujdovic (whose visa had lapsed) had departed by this point; Rixon would pass away in 1993 from causes related to substance use. Rubber Never Sleeps, a cassette-only collection of live recordings spanning 1978 to 1983, appeared next. Weird Love was then re-recorded in 1986 as a three-piece with Leanne Chock replacing Rixon, incorporating "Nitro" from the This Heart EP and the original "You Only Live Twice." It marked the first Scientists release to reach the United States, issued by Big Time. The band spent much of this period touring Europe alongside Alex Chilton, the Gun Club, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Alan Vega of Suicide, and additional artists. Their following full-length, The Human Jukebox (1987), contained fresh material, yet only Salmon and Tony Thewlis remained from the Sydney-era lineup; they were augmented by Nick Combe. Dissolution followed that same year, after which Salmon returned to Perth. Though inactive, the Scientists were represented on the 1988 tribute album Fast 'N' Bulbous by their notable cover of Captain Beefheart's "Clear Spot."

Despite the Scientists' breakup, the indefatigable Kim Salmon continued working. That year he launched Kim Salmon & the Surrealists, a comparable project that integrated soul and funk elements. In subsequent years he pursued an array of styles and ensembles, among them Salamander Jim (alongside Tex Perkins of the Beasts of Bourbon, with whom Salmon had frequently collaborated during the 1980s), Kim Salmon's Human Jukebox, Kim Salmon's STM, Kim Salmon & the Business (an outgrowth of the Surrealists sharing the same method but featuring different personnel), Antenna (a techno-pop collaboration with longtime Perth associate Dave Faulkner), Darling Downs (a duo with Died Pretty vocalist Ronald Peno), an instrumental outfit simply called Salmon, and a duo project with former Scientists drummer Leanne Cowie. The Scientists' reputation expanded through two compilations: 1990's Pissed on Another Planet, devoted to early punk and power-pop material, and 1991's Absolute, issued by Sub Pop. After an extended period during which they appeared fated to remain a time-bound cult act, the group reunited for a single performance at the 2010 ATP Festival in New York. Following additional years of relative quiet, Numero Group released the expansive box set A Place Called Bad in late 2016, encompassing the bulk of their 1980s recordings. Motivated by that collection, Salmon reconvened the 1985/1986 lineup—Salmon, Thewlis, Sujdovic, and Cowie—for concerts in 2018. The response encouraged further recording. The single "Braindead (Resuscitated)"/"SurvivalsKills" appeared in 2018, succeeded by the 9H₂O.SiO₂ EP in 2019. Both emerged on In the Red Records and confirmed that the band retained their signature abrasiveness and looseness. The same configuration completed the 2021 album Negativity. Salmon altered the compositional method on this occasion, laying down drum tracks himself before forwarding them to Thewlis for riff development; the remaining members then convened to finalize the arrangements. However it was constructed, the record delivers classic Scientists material with occasional additions such as female backing vocals, Baroque-pop refrains, violin passages, and witty lyrics. In the Red also released the album.