S.Y.P.H.

Reviews

S.Y.P.H. Pst LP reissue

Welcome reissue of this cult Dusseldorf band’s 1980 LP. This collection of unpolished, exploratory jams takes as much inspiration from the era’s punk as it does krautrock (CAN’s Holger Czukay produced and released the record on his label), early post-punk, and Neue Deutsche Welle, with a healthy sprinkling of Dada weirdness. Loose experimentation runs through all the songs, starting with the banging studio mischief of “Euroton” into the fuzzed-out, repetitive psych trip of “Einsam in Wien (Lustlos).” “Moderne Romantik” is the most traditional punk track, although its economical chord strikes and off-kilter rhythms place it more with WIRE or GANG OF FOUR than the band’s earlier records. “Lametta” opens with rhythmic cadence and unsettling childlike vocal chanting that sounds like stumbling upon a clandestine komische drum circle in the woods. Even farther out is “Regentanz,” a nearly nine-minute, mostly instrumental Farfisa, bass, and trumpet trip that will make your brain melt and your toes tap. Rounding out an unusual record is perhaps the weirdest song: “Do the Fleischwurst,” a funky syncopated punk-disco track devoted to German bologna. This is a great LP that snapshots punk in many forms and comes highly recommended.

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.