Pitchfork

Here today, gone tomorrow: Perusing Johan Kugelberg's list of 100 "best" DIY punk singles from the Ugly Things zine is a lesson in the fleeting bursts of creativity and desperation every collector of rare shit must wade through. I've never really been bitten by the collector bug personally, but have known enough people who have that it's become pretty easy for me to spot what they're looking for. Generally, bands that didn't last very long and put out records very few people heard (preferably self-pressed, and certainly vinyl- or cassette-only) find their way into collector hands almost as quickly as they disappeared. Sometimes, these folks uncover real hidden gems. For every few dozen of deservedly forgotten garage punk artistes, there's a band that could have been contenders in the world of the living had their luck been better. British trio The Homosexuals fit this bill, and I've a feeling that anyone into those hallowed days of apathy, art and the anti-social in the UK during the late 70s will be happy to know they existed.

The Homosexuals were a strange prospect. Seemingly, their music should fit into a similar spot as that of angry young men like Wire and Magazine who carried their penchants for art-school angst in the midst of proto-thug posturing, like badges of authentic alienation. And of course, in many ways, these bands were alienated-- at least from what had been passing for British rock prior to 1976. However, L'Voag (aka Jim, Amos, and now, Xentos), Anton (aka George Harassment) and Bruno were also part of a different scene, where more "progressive" notions of artistic protest were at stake: This Heat, Family Fodder and Chris Cutler's bands Henry Cow and the Art Bears were some of the names going at it in these circles.

So what and who were they? And where have they been for the last 25 years? The band actually formed in 1977, shortly after L'Voag noticed Bruno in protest at a National Front gathering/riot, while Anton answered an ad. After choosing a calculatedly provocative name, the three set about playing and recording a little on their own, and the following year, engineer Chris Gray (brother of producer Nigel Gray) brought them to Surrey Sound to record all of the music that ended up on the original Homosexuals' Record, and indeed, everything on this CD reissue. Their first release was the "Hearts in Exile"/"Soft South Africans" single, which was given extra collector life by its placement on Kugelberg's list (as was their seven-inch, "You're Not Moving the Way You're Supposed To", not contained on this album). The band released a couple of EPs from these sessions on Black Noise Records, as well as working on myriad solo projects before splitting in the early 80s.

The Homosexuals' split was no mere parting of ways, but a complete severing of ties. Bruno actually gave the tapes that became The Homosexuals' Record (reportedly from a cassette dub of masters he'd destroyed) to Cutler's ReR in 1984 without consulting the rest of the band. Before anyone could do anything about it, the record had been released and already gone out of print. Just like that, you get a lurid backstory, a flash of music, and fuzzy details over who did what to whom. Result: punk legend and collector fantasy. Today, L'Voag is the most musically active, having most recently released music as Xentos with Die Computer Trip Die-- though as with all things Homosexuals, specific details on the musicians are sketchy.

The music on The Homosexuals' CD is a sprawling bag of angular power-pop, quasi-dub, garage-punk and other stuff I'd liken to Faust or some such lunatic mob if I had to. In fact, I have a Homosexuals cover of Faust's "It's a Rainy Day Sunshine Girl" on CDR, which I still can't fit into this whole story. Suffice to say, were it not for the rudimentary production values, I'd say these guys would have given any of the big post-punk bands a run for their money in terms of both songwriting (the impact of these songs is almost impossible to deny) and sheer diversity.

This reissue doesn't collect everything The Homosexuals did, but it does emphasize what a great, fun, strange band they were. "Hearts in Exile" is the perfect punk love song, with a slow-building intro of slashed guitar and L'Voag's cryptic description of "bloodshot eyes/ Appetizing, isolation.../ The messages of radio," his voice coming and going and bathed in reverb; it's all very hard to pin down, as if the song might suddenly fade out into nothing at any moment. And then comes the hook, featuring a four-note, pleading guitar riff that conveys heartbreak masked by aggression perfectly. Even better is the punchy, ambitious "Astral Glamour" (also the name of a pending three-disc set planned by Chuck Warner's Hyped to Death label later this year), a shiny piece of power-pop that would sound as good coming from early XTC as it would have on The Who's Sell Out. Nonsensical lyrics ("Astral glamour semen in the region") barely hide the infectious, incredibly concise strains. By all rights, this should have been a hit, as should either version of "Soft South Africans" contained here.

Elsewhere, The Homosexuals ram out tunes with speed-of-light abandon. "My Night Out", "Technique Street", "Vociferous Slam" and "A Million Keys" all clock in at less than two minutes and are explosive bits of jagged post-punk along the lines of Gang of Four. However, L'Voag is a much more overtly passionate vocalist, going for broke on pretty much everything. He bleats lines like, "Lovers licking labia seem satisfied, satisfied," as if shouting over a mad crowd of sweaty admirers and psychopaths. "Divorce Proceedings from Reality" and "Neutron Lover" proceed with similar zeal, but with the immediacy of great, sparkling pop. A far cry removed are tracks like "All About Cheap" (the DIY aesthetic defined) and "Mecho Madness", using the limited studio technology at their disposal to construct strange, damaged art pieces reminiscent of concurrent Pere Ubu.

The worst part about a release like this is that if you want more, you're virtually out of luck. The remaining Homosexuals material is all from the same period (excepting an EP recorded after L'Voag left the band), but if you want to find out "what happened next," you'll have to search the various long-gone solo projects including Amos & Sara, George Harassment, Sara Goes Pop, and Nancy Sesay & The Melodaires. Warner's set should take care of some of that, but there are still holes in their official discography. However, now that there's a legit (and presumably well-distributed) CD issue of The Homosexuals' music, I bet their legacy gets a boost. The music speaks volumes for itself.