With their unpredictable live performances and songs such as Zurck zum Beton and Industriemdchen, S.Y.P.H. caused a ruckus at the end of the 70s – as one of the bands that began to write lyrics in German around Dsseldorf’s Ratinger Hof. Right from the start, the band broke with genre-conformist expectations and borrowed from rock, punk and kraut just as much as from Dadaism and the reality of everyday life.

Now, a reissue sheds light on S.Y.P.H.’s first creative phase from 1977 to 1982. On December 6th 2024, Tapete Records releases the Pure Freude Singles including previously unreleased songs and the self-titled album S.Y.P.H. (including Zurck zum Beton). Three further re-releases, two of them produced by CAN’s Holger Czukay, will follow in 2025.

S.Y.P.H. formed in 1977 in Solingen and began playing concerts in nearby Dsseldorf. Initially clearly based on punk, the band’s sound quickly developed and became increasingly difficult to categorise. In the intensive years that followed, S.Y.P.H.s productions often featured guests from the Dsseldorf scene around Ratinger Hof or CANs Holger Czukay.

S.Y.P.H. – S.Y.P.H.
While around 1980, punk and Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) were solidifying as supposedly clear-cut concepts, S.Y.P.H.’s music testified to the blurriness of genre boundaries: already on the first, selftitled LP, the band belts out short punky songs like Zurck zum Beton and Lachleute und Nettmenschen, while the B-side surprises with more than ten-minute long Kraut-inspired pieces.

Pure Freude Singles
This is a collection of the band’s early singles: four tracks – including Industriemdchen and Europa – were originally released in 1979 on the EP Viel Feind, viel Ehr. Thirteen further tracks – including Falsche Freunde and Knudelblues II – were released in 1982 as Der Bauer im Parkdeck. Three further songs are unreleased.