TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : Excellent Good Fair Poor : COMPACT DISCS

“Pink Flag.” “Chairs Missing.” “154.” Wire. Harvest/EMI (AAD). Perhaps the most sadly overlooked band of the late ‘70s, this English punk/post-punk/art foursome started off in 1977 with “Flag,” a ferocious attack bearing grandly dissonant guitar-thrashing, biting minimalist-surreal poetry, thin but impassioned singing and 21 songs in 35 minutes (long before the Minutemen). A punk-fan base was established and then largely blown away by “Chairs” and “154,” where Wire’s tear-’em-up blast largely gave way to a unique variety of tempos and tones--some very pretty, others angst -edged, most original and brilliant. Then the group went kaput (they’ve recently reformed). Bolstered with bonus tracks--”Chairs” and “154” each contain more than 50 minutes of music--these three sharp-sounding CDs are highly recommended to the auditorily adventurous.