S.Y.P.H. was an outsider band formed in Solingen outside Düsseldorf in 1977. While originally inspired by the punk movement, their music quickly became more weird and incorporated a wide range of influences. By the time their first album S.Y.P.H. came out on the local Düsseldorf label Pure Freude in 1980, they had already expanded into Can-inspired moments, pop melodies and long krautrock explorations.
The name is said to originally have referred to syphilis, with singer Peter Braatz adding the periods to ‘confuse people’. It’s was later said to stand for Saufender Yankee Prügelt Homo as well as other things.
In December the Hamburg label Tapete reissued their selftitled album (the first one out two selftitled LPs), and at the same time released a compilation called Pure Freude Singles. This LP gathers their first four releases and adds 3 unreleased songs – creating a total of 20 tracks.
