BORIS

Boris is Yezda Urfa´s debut album or rather it´s the debut demo album from Yezda Yrfa as Boris was not proberly released back then. I thought Yezda Urfa was some kind of obscure east european prog band with that name but in reality they are an american band which is obvious when you listen to the music. It´s hard to understand why Boris wasn´t released as it is certainly deserving the high praise it gets here on prog archives. If there ever was a forgotten gem, this is it. Once again the music industry rears it´s ughly head and dismisses one of the most promising american bands of the seventies.

The music is eclectic as it draws influences from lot of different genres. The rythm section is very active and is obviously jazz/ fusion influenced. I hear some symphonic tendencies here too ( Most evident is the Yes influence). There are lots of moog and flute on Boris. Two vocalists share the melodic and memorable vocal lines. At first I thought one of them was a woman, but seing the lineup has convinced me that it´s a man with a very female sounding voice. There´s a short bluegrass song in Texas Armadillo while the rest of the songs are controlled by the strong jazz/ fusion rythm section and the aforementioned flute, keyboards ( especially moog) and vocals. Bases Of Dubenglazy which is one of the bonus tracks on the version I have has some polyrythmic vocals which reminds me of Gentle Giant. There´s also a definite folky edge to some of the parts in the songs. As you can read from my description of the music on Boris it´s hard to pin down the genre which Yezda Urfa belong to, so I agree to the eclectic genre term which I feel suits this music well.

The musicianship on Boris is outstanding. The drummer/ percussionist Brad Christoff has to be mentioned as he is relentless and very skilled. Some of the percussion parts he plays makes me think of Zappa. He is a real treat to listen to. The keyboardist Phil Kimbrough who also plays the wind instruments on Boris is also very good even though he uses the moog just a bit too much in some peoples opinion. I love the sound of the moog though so I don´t have a problem with this.

The production is the weak point on Boris but taking into account that this is a demo album the production is good. The sound is good enough to hear everything that is happening and it´s certainly good enough for promoting yourself to record companies even in today´s standard.

This leads me to say: What were those record company executives thinking about when they dismissed Yezda Urfa ? They must have had an ass where we normal people have ears. It´s a bit disturbing but on the other hand it´s also very intriguing to think about that there might still be some forgotten gems out there like this one. Boris is certainly an excellent album and it deserves 4 big stars.