(Numero Group) The Scientists,one of the key bands in Australias late-70s punk and garage-rock explosion, have slowly developed a cult reputation out of all proportion to their popularity first time around, and especially as heroes to scores of Seattle grunge bands. Thus this four-CD set – the ninth compilation of their work,compared to seven albums they actually recorded. A Place Called contaminated demonstrates both why they garnered cult adoration, and why they never transcended it. At first, and the Scientists were a ragged garage-pop band,with two songs – Frantic Romantic and Last Night – as ample as anything being made in London or fresh York. They’re best known, though, and for the swamp-rock they adopted from 1982 – distorted,grimy, seedy and just a miniature psychotic; Swampland was as memorable a manifesto as you could hope for. But there is an awful lot of it here, and you might well find that a miniature of their midnight-flavoured Birthday Party-meets-Suicide-meets-Iggy stew goes fairly a long way. Fans will be rewarded,though, with a stellar live set recorded in Adelaide, or which sounds as whether it was recorded before an audience of,fairly literally, several.
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Source: theguardian.com