Apollo: News

[Len]

*******'s Birthday Pick

Yezda Urfa - Sacred Baboon [1976/1989]

Progressive rock

Discogs - ProgArchives - Wikipedia

******* wrote:

In the early 1970's progressive rock was mainly a British affair, with groups like Yes, Jethro Tull, Genesis, King Crimson and Gentle Giant shaping the genre. Bands from Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, among others, followed suit shortly, but in the USA it was not catching up. Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention were releasing off-mainstream albums with psychedelic roots; Kansas did their first, self-titled album to no public acclaim, and echolyn were also just starting.

And then there were Yezda Urfa. In 1975 they recorded a demo EP called "Boris", which didn't attract any interest from the record labels, so they financed and recorded an album by themselves, hoping it would help them in getting a record deal. They were only offered a bad deal by a small record company, so they declined (they kept the T-Shirts, which were handed out though). They finished Sacred Baboon, as the album was called, in 1976, but due to lack of funds they shelved it, and in 1981 called it a day, and the band split up to pursue other interests, mostly out of the music scene. In 1985 a guy called Peter Stoller got his hands on their debut demo album, and brought it to the attention of Greg Walker from Syn-Phonic records, and thus Yezda Urfa were finally discovered, which resulted in the release of their hidden gem Sacred Baboon in 1989.

Bursting with energy and creativity, it emphasizes complexity, tempo-changes, all-you-can-eat time-signatures, instrument changes in mid-song, bizarre humor and weird lyrics. Progressive rock at its very best, made in the USA.