S.Y.P.H. S.Y.P.H. LP reissue
This 1980 debut LP from long-running German outfit S.Y.P.H. landed right at the crossroads where punk and post-punk diverged, with an A-side largely rooted in sub-two-minute stompers and a B-side that turns sharply toward with freeform freakouts and lengthy, Krautrock-inspired drones—an exercise in contrasts for sure, but it’s also an illuminating one-band preview/overview of the many musical sub-factions evolving out of the late ’70s/early ’80s Deutschpunk underground. “Industrie-Mädchen” (later to earn a Killed By Death nod) and “Zurück zum Beton” employ a Pink Flag-like Brutalist economy with minimal chords slashing over charging drums, while the ABWÄRTS-ish “Lachleute & Nettmenschen” features an industrial factory beat so fixed and unchanging that S.Y.P.H. could have just as easily been the band to mutate into EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN. The fuzzed-out, menacing ”Chess Challenger” recalls fellow German art-fuckups 39 CLOCKS, “Partir” hits an early Zickzack nerve with its guitar-strangling no wave clang and clatter, and the seven-minute prog-damaged instrumental “Kisuaheli” foreshadows the collaborations with CAN’s Holger Czukay that S.Y.P.H. would forge on their next two LPs. Best of all (and a relative outlier in an already eclectic batch of tracks) is the danceable, proto-Neue Deutsche Welle bounce of ”What Happens?,” with Andrea Eichler and Stefanie De Jong taking over vocals for a faux-disco femme-punk banger totally of a piece with DOROTHY’s killer “Softness” from that same year. Tapete is currently in the midst of an extensive S.Y.P.H. reissue run, and this first LP is as good a place to start as any if you’re looking to fall down the rabbit hole.