S.Y.P.H. formed in 1977 in Solingen and began playing concerts in nearby Dusseldorf. 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 Dusseldorf scene around Ratinger Hof or CANs Holger Czukay.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, self-titled LP, the band belts out short punky songs like "Zuruck zum Beton" and "Lachleute und Nettmenschen", while the B-side surprises with more than ten-minute long Kraut-inspired pieces.