Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) - Homosapien [2LP/ Bonus Tracks/ Photo & Lyric Inserts]

After Buzzcocks disbanded in 1981, frontman Pete Shelley teamed up with Martin Rushent, embracing the producer’s newly acquired synths and drum machines to rework his tracks, crafting a new blueprint for electronic pop music in the process. A production blueprint that would soon achieve massive mainstream success with another Rushent production; Dare by the Human League.

Across both LPs, Shelley combines his urgent songwriting with chugging synthesisers and electronic percussion creating records that straddle rock radio and London’s nascent club scene. These albums sound as fresh today as they did upon release, but the innovative nature of Homosapien and XL-1 has been overlooked. Overshadowed by the influence of Pete’s former band and by the Human League’s runaway hit, not helped by the BBC banning the ‘Homosapien’ single on homophobic grounds (though it became an electro LGBT anthem in gay dance clubs). Domino reissues both albums as standalone double LPs, housed in gatefold sleeves with new liner notes by Clinton Heylin.

"It is like a dialogue between me and myself. I put in the deep dark feelings and what I gain out of the music helps give me a release to keep me sane” - Pete Shelley, to Richard Cook, NME April 1983.

Side A:

Homosapien
Yesterday's Not Here
I Generate a Feeling
Keats' Song
Qu'est-ce Que C'est Que Ça

Side B:

I Don't Know What It Is
Guess I Must Have Been in Love with Myself
Pusher Man
Just One of Those Affairs
It's Hard Enough Knowing

Side C:

In Love with Somebody Else
Witness the Change
Maxine
Love in Vain

Side D:

Homosapien (Elongated Dancepartydubmix)
Witness the Change / I Don't Know What Love Is (Dub)