Dead Science darkens the corners

Published 11:00 am Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Reviewers tend to find the Dead Science unclassifiable, hazarding references as disparate as Latin drumming, vaudeville and show tunes, and the Mambo dance craze.

All of which Korum Bischoff finds amusing, inaccurate and ultimately problematic, because as he observes, “they need to know where to put you in the record store.”

“We describe it as ‘dark indie-pop,’” said Bischoff, drummer for the Bainbridge Island/Seattle-based trio. “But we’re all trained jazz musicians, so we have a lot more chordal substance.”

If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, how then to convey the sense of jazzy narcosis that permeates the band’s first full-length CD, “Submariner”?

Notwithstanding the ace musicianship, listeners not predisposed to the darker, more experimental corners of popular music are likely to find the album enigmatic and dour.

Lethargic vocalist Sam Mickens imbues the songs with a hushed desperation, his voice anti-gravitating into falsetto against soft strums or sheets of guitar distortion.

The album title’s nautical connotations are fitting; the music ebbs and flows on weird currents.

In “Below,” Jherek Bischoff’s fretless bass moans like a plaintive horn in a fog, while the coda of “Girl with the Unseen Hand” finds Mickens’ voice adrift in a sea of echo. Korum Bischoff anchors the proceedings with lull or cacophony as needed.

Odd time signatures, obscure chords, loud-soft dynamics, noise and dissonance all find their way into the structures.

All of which is to say, the Dead Science is not the easiest of listening experiences, and that’s exactly how they would have it.

“When we play a bill with more punk or rock outfits, we tend to stand out,” Bischoff said. “People really love it, or they’re confused by it.”

The album’s intricate sounds are the result of a four-week recording-and-mixing stint at Bainbridge Island’s Trillium Lane Studios, under the guidance of producer and friend Chadwick Dahlquist.

The top-of-the-line studio setting allowed the band to bring in guest violinists and cellists, adding to the aural filigree.

Plus, it was a good deal.

“We were their first band, so they gave us a super-good discount,” Bischoff said.

The album was picked up by the Berkeley, Calif.-based Absolutely Kosher Records, and is being distributed nationally through various online retailers.

The band has toured the West Coast club circuit for the past couple of years, with some higher-profile gigs on the horizon – including a Saturday afternoon slot at this weekend’s Bumbershoot in Seattle.

Then in October, the Dead Science will head to New York to appear at the CMJ Music Marathon, an annual bacchanal put on by the industry tipsheet College Music Journal.

Hundreds of bands descend on Manhattan for the four-day event, typically overrun by college DJs, programmers, promoters and A&R types, and is considered a good avenue for raising a band’s profile.

“Submariner” is already getting national college airplay, hovering in the mid-60s on the CMJ charts.

That does not mean the band harbors commercial aspirations.

“I think we’d all just like to see it progress (musically),” Bischoff said. “I don’t think any of us are pushing for any big rock-star success. Although I don’t think we’d turn it down if it came.”

The Bischoff brothers are no strangers to Bainbridge Island audiences, having played with seemingly every local jazz and rock ensemble to take the stage over the past however-many years.

They met Mickens while performing with an organist as the Liberty Valance Trio, in an improvisational jazz series at the now-defunct brew pub in the Pavilion.

Reconstituted minus the organist as a rock(ish) outfit, the band played under the moniker “the Sweet Science” for some months, until they were threatened with a lawsuit by a Chicago outfit that had already laid claim to the name.

Bischoff and Co. consulted with attorneys, but wound up changing their name rather than pressing the issue.

“There was no way we were going to win,” Korum Bischoff said. “We got a cease-and-desist order, which we ignored as long as we could until they started calling my home.”

Mickens and Jherek Bischoff have since decamped for Seattle, and split their Dead Science time with another outfit called the Degenerate Art Ensemble.

Korum leaves the play-or-die aspirations to his bandmates. At age 28 the eldest of the three, he holds a day job as a graphic designer for One Reel in Seattle; he and his wife recently bought a house on the island, and will become parents in January.

But riding a crest of interest, more studio time is planned in September; Bischoff said the music is already evolving away from the “Submariner” sessions.

“Our sound is a little different than it was at that point,” he said, getting “poppier and less moody.

“It still sounds different, but you can tap your toes to it a little easier.”

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LIVE DEAD: Bainbridge Island band the Dead Science will appear at this weekend’s Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, taking the Experience Music Project’s Sky Church stage at 12:30 p.m. Aug. 30.

Their new album, “Submariner,” is available from various online retailers. Information: www.thedeadscience.com, or email gumboproductions@earthlink.net