{"id":2615,"date":"2025-06-11T12:34:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T12:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/pete-shelley-homosapien-xl-1-reissues-1981-83-150079\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:34:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T12:34:22","slug":"pete-shelley-homosapien-xl-1-reissues-1981-83-150079","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/pete-shelley-homosapien-xl-1-reissues-1981-83-150079\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Shelley \u2013 Homosapien\/XL-1 (reissues, 1981, \u201983)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Pete Shelley<\/strong> returned to Genetic Studios in leafy Berkshire in February 1981, the plan had been to sketch out songs for the fourth Buzzcocks<\/strong> album with the band\u2019s trusted producer Martin Rushent<\/strong>. Trouble was, neither Shelley nor Rushent could face working on Buzzcocks material. That ship had sailed: 1980 was not a vintage year for the band whose effervescent power-pop had shown that punk could be fun and vulnerable, whose run of blistering singles from \u201977 to \u201979 meant so much to so many, and the way Shelley was withholding his new ideas from the rest of the group suggested that something was up. Other warning signs, noted by bandmate Steve Diggle<\/strong> in his book Harmony In My Head<\/strong>, included Shelley moaning to the press about how unhappy he was and how restricted he felt in the band, telling journalists, \u201cPunk is dead\u201d, and saying how he wanted to explore the possibilities of electronic music.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When Pete Shelley<\/strong> returned to Genetic Studios in leafy Berkshire in February 1981, the plan had been to sketch out songs for the fourth Buzzcocks<\/strong> album with the band\u2019s trusted producer Martin Rushent<\/strong>. Trouble was, neither Shelley nor Rushent could face working on Buzzcocks material. That ship had sailed: 1980 was not a vintage year for the band whose effervescent power-pop had shown that punk could be fun and vulnerable, whose run of blistering singles from \u201977 to \u201979 meant so much to so many, and the way Shelley was withholding his new ideas from the rest of the group suggested that something was up. Other warning signs, noted by bandmate Steve Diggle<\/strong> in his book Harmony In My Head<\/strong>, included Shelley moaning to the press about how unhappy he was and how restricted he felt in the band, telling journalists, \u201cPunk is dead\u201d, and saying how he wanted to explore the possibilities of electronic music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Buzzcocks formally split in March \u201981 and by then Shelley and Rushent were certainly testing the limits of the new technology recently acquired for Genetic, Rushent\u2019s plush Thameside HQ. \u201cThe computer or synthesizer is the great leveller. It is no longer necessary to be a virtuoso to make good things,\u201d Rushent told Rolling Stone<\/strong> in July \u201982. Shelley had arrived with a 12-string guitar but was soon immersed in electronic sound \u2013 Genetic had a rare Fairlight CMI, banks of modules and a full range of analogue synths, including a Roland Microcomposer, which the pair got to grips with as Shelley assembled older songs such as \u201cHomosapien<\/strong>\u201d, \u201cLove In Vain<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cMaxine<\/strong>\u201d from his first band Jets Of Air<\/strong>, and wrote the likes of \u201cWitness The Change<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cI Don\u2019t Know What It Is<\/strong>\u201d: familiar Buzzcocks titles for atmospheric tracks built up from programmed rhythms and basslines. Genetic also had an arrangement with Island and offered Shelley a solo deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shelley, who died in December 2018 aged 63, will be remembered for his pithy and poignant Buzzcocks songs which he seemingly dashed off at will in his teens and early twenties. But he loved electronic music too: from Can<\/strong>, Tangerine Dream<\/strong> and Neu!<\/strong> to more wayward experimental gear, he was intrigued by sound, and its strange immediacy suited his impulsive nature. In 1980, he released his solo debut Sky Yen<\/strong> \u2013 two 20-minute blasts of wild oscillations recorded in 1974 \u2013 on his own Groovy label, which Drag City reissued in 2011 alongside LPs by his ramshackle industrial acts Free Agents<\/strong> and Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners<\/strong>. His 2002 reunion with Howard Devoto<\/strong> for Buzzkunst<\/strong> used synth-driven post-punk to make its tongue-in-cheek point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In many ways, writing for himself and arranging his ideas on computer allowed Shelley to express himself more freely, in bolder, funkier, even saucier terms. His bisexuality and queerness \u2013 there if you look for it in the Buzzcocks\u2019 hits \u2013 surfaced quite naturally on Homosapien<\/strong> and inevitably colours perception of the record and its follow-up XL-1<\/strong>. \u201cHomosapien<\/strong>\u201d and Rushent\u2019s groundbreaking 10-minute \u201cElongated Dancepartydubmix<\/strong>\u201d of it were hits on the radio and in the club, even though the BBC banned the song for its \u201cexplicit reference to gay sex\u201d \u2013 the \u201cHomosuperior, in my interior<\/em>\u201d line \u2013 not quite appreciating Shelley\u2019s self-deprecating humour: \u201cI\u2019m the cruiser, you\u2019re the loser<\/em>\u201d; more Rising Damp<\/strong> than Are You Being Served?<\/strong>. Eagle-eyed admirers might\u2019ve spotted the green carnation in the lapel of Shelley\u2019s white suit on the album cover and in the video for \u201cHomosapien<\/strong>\u201d, a symbol for gay men, once used by Oscar Wilde<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Homosapien<\/strong> is an exciting record but not necessarily a great album. With \u201cHomosapien<\/strong>\u201d becoming a sizeable hit across the pond, the Americans, to their credit, replaced the weaker ballads \u201cKeats Song<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s Hard Enough Knowing<\/strong>\u201d with the strident \u201cWitness The Change<\/strong>\u201d and poppier \u201cLove In Vain<\/strong>\u201d on the US version, releasing this in October \u201981, three months before the pushed-back UK release in January \u201982. By then, the Human League<\/strong>\u2019s Dare<\/strong> \u2013 an album programmed and produced by Rushent immediately after Homosapien<\/strong>, using the same machines \u2013 had already topped the charts, giving the impression that Shelley\u2019s effort was somehow inferior or lacked that elusive X factor.<\/p>\n

In their arrangement, the way they burst into life, Shelley\u2019s \u201cQu\u2019est-ce Que C\u2019est Que \u00c7a<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cYesterday\u2019s Not Here<\/strong>\u201d could be demos for Dare<\/strong>. Equally fruitful for Rushent was his prescient decision to cut and splice certain tracks to create extended mixes for the club. The dub of \u201cWitness The Change\u201d\/\u201cI Don\u2019t Know What Love Is<\/strong>\u201d, at once tough, hallucinogenic and tuneful, has been a Balearic banger for decades \u2013 a portal to Shelley for those who\u2019d never bothered with Buzzcocks. From XL-1<\/strong>, the masterful funk flex of \u201cMany A Time<\/strong>\u201d and a 13-minute album megamix teem with ideas Rushent deployed on his widescreen revamp of Dare<\/strong> for the League Unlimited Orchestra<\/strong>\u2019s Love And Dancing<\/strong> LP the year before.<\/p>\n

Released in May \u201983, XL-1<\/strong> was shaped by the same machines but had more human involvement (Barry Adamson<\/strong> joined on bass and \u201cideas\u201d, Genetic\u2019s session player Jim Russell<\/strong> drummed) and was carried, like Homosapien<\/strong>, by its opening track, in this case \u201cTelephone Operator<\/strong>\u201d. The sole remaining unrecorded original song from Shelley\u2019s Jets Of Air days \u2013 YouTube footage shows them playing it in 1973 \u2013 it became another cult club hit, but the album\u2019s lack of traction could come down to the fact that as a leading man, Shelley\u2019s coy, happy-go-lucky demeanour didn\u2019t command the same attention as characters like Boy George<\/strong>, Kevin Rowland<\/strong> or George Michael<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Suitably for Shelley, XL-1<\/strong> is a mixed-up affair (not helped, perhaps, by the revelation in Adamson\u2019s autobiography that he came on to Shelley during the sessions). There are beautifully restrained songs (\u201cTwilight<\/strong>\u201d, \u201cWhat Was Heaven<\/strong>\u201d), sprightly cuts that sound like Buzzcocks<\/strong> (\u201cYou Know Better Than I Know<\/strong>\u201d, \u201cXL1<\/strong>\u201d) and head-spinning electro-funk (\u201cMany A Time<\/strong>\u201d, \u201cIf You Ask Me (I Won\u2019t Say No)<\/strong>\u201d). It also came with its own ZX Spectrum program so that computer users could experience the album onscreen as a kind of 8-bit karaoke, which gives you a sense of Shelley\u2019s enthusiasm for technology. This program was designed by Shelley\u2019s longtime pal Joey Headen<\/strong> who would go on to work on video games in the US, including Call Of Duty<\/strong> and a Pac-Man<\/strong> reboot.<\/p>\n

Taken together, Homosapien<\/strong> and XL-1<\/strong> paint a portrait of a young man in the full bloom of life, creating and coming of age on his own terms, with little regard to how it might be perceived. It wouldn\u2019t last, of course, and a few years later Shelley\u2019s next album, the Stephen Hague<\/strong>-produced Heaven And The Sea<\/strong>, fared even worse than XL-1<\/strong>. These Domino reissues \u2013 available on vinyl for the first time since their original release \u2013 arrive just six years after the two albums were included in Shelley\u2019s The Genetic Years<\/strong> boxset. Both also feature all the dub mixes and extra tracks, and there are no new or unreleased surprises here. But this is more than enough to reflect again on the genius of Shelley, whose hot streak from 1977 to \u201983 is still underappreciated. These reissues should go some way to setting that record straight \u2013 though straight was never the right word for Shelley.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Pete Shelley \u2013 Homosapien\/XL-1 (reissues, 1981, \u201983)<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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