The Scientists, one of the key bands in Australia’s late-70s punk and garage-rock explosion, have slowly developed a cult reputation out of all proportion to their popularity first time around, 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 Bad demonstrates both why they garnered cult adoration, and why they never transcended it. At first, the Scientists were a ragged garage-pop band, with two songs – Frantic Romantic and Last Night – as good as anything being made in London or New York. They’re best known, though, for the swamp-rock they adopted from 1982 – distorted, grimy, seedy and just a little 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 little of their midnight-flavoured Birthday Party-meets-Suicide-meets-Iggy stew goes quite a long way. Fans will be rewarded, though, with a stellar live set recorded in Adelaide, which sounds as if it was recorded before an audience of, quite literally, several.
