Review Summary: One of the best US prog albums. One of the most original 70's works.
“Boris” is the debut studio album of Yezda Urfa that was released in 1975. The line up on the album is Rick Rodenbaugh, Mark Tippins, Phil Kimbrough, Marc Miller and Brad Christoff.
Yezda Urfa was an American progressive rock band that was founded in the fall of 1973. The band recorded two studio albums before disbanding in the spring of 1981, “Boris” in 1975 and “Sacred Baboon” in 1989. The name of the band Yezda Urfa comes from two cities, Yazd from Iran and Urfa from Turkey. It seems the band came across these names while flipping through the dictionary, looking for a name to the band. The name Yazd was changed to Yezda for an easier pronounce. The sound of the band was often described as a mix of Yes and Gentle Giant styles. Yezda Urfa was known for playing high energetic progressive rock music with fast tempos, many time signature changes and several musical instruments. These were hallmarks of their sound. If we add one more thing, an intricate vocal performance, we have the full picture. Yezda Urfa is often compared with their compatriots Echolyn, a prog band founded in 1989.
As happened with many other prog releases in the 70’s, “Boris” had a very difficult child-birth. After more than a year of rehearsals, concerts and home recordings, the band reunited at Universal Recording’s Chicago studios recorded all of “Boris” tracks in just a few days. 300 copies of the demos were pressed, which would serve as publicity material. The band sent the first record demos to several record labels, even travelling to New York to try their luck distributing some copies door to door on some major record labels and radio stations. But, all the effort was in vain. In 1975 no one was interested in signing with bands featuring a sound as complex as Yezda Urfa had. So, “Boris” went almost to oblivion.
“Boris” has a hidden honourable sound that is a reminiscent of Gentle Giant. The melody is sorrowful and beautiful, the ensemble oriented performance is just like Yes and the chorus are like Gentle Giant. The sound quality is very good that incorporates the slow rhythm and its time signature is like Gentle Giant too. This is seamlessly connected and the good melody is combined to create a sound that isn’t very common in the majority of the prog rock bands. The sound of the ARP synth fits perfectly well on here. In addition, guitars and keyboards, wind instruments, mandolins and some strange sounding percussion are used to create an old fashioned atmosphere. The vocals are similar to Jon Anderson.
“Boris” has five tracks. It starts with “Boris And His 3 Verses (Including Flow Guides Aren’t My Bag)” that sounds symphonic with lead vocals sung as a duet, with the actual lead vocalist taking on the second voice. His voice is really deceptively similar to Anderson’s. It features some beautiful guitar moments. The energetic drums and keyboards are reminiscent of those performed by Carl Palmer and Keith Emerson, respectively. It’s an overall quite impressive and often emotional track. “Texas Armadillo” is a small happy number with a banjo that gets faster and faster. It’s a country rock style track anchored by excellent drums and bass. “3, Almost 4, 6 Yea” sounds a bit more aggressive offering some nice keyboard tones and more dominant guitars at the end. It has a combination of vibes between Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes. It’s a very complex track with many influences and nuances built and performed by musicians who understand well what they were doing. “To-Ta In The Moya & Tyreczimmage” features a nice mandolin, great electric guitars, phenomenal bass lines, exciting drums, synthesizers that create a sensational atmosphere, a flute interlude and beautiful vocal harmonies, all in a virtuoso performance with great skill levels by all musicians, conveying nice and well controlled melodies. It’s a brilliant track. “Three Tons Of Fresh Thyroid Glands” is a track where you can see the presence of the progressive rock sounds, such as virtuosity, unusual tempos, instruments making unison and changes in tempo with wonderful vocal walls and some beautiful acoustic moments. This is an extremely rich and uplifting track.
Conclusion: All in all, “Boris” is a wonderful progressive rock album with a masterful performance by all involved. But, unfortunately “Boris” failed to get the attention of the major record labels at the time. Yet, “Boris” is a great album that worth to be bought by all lovers of the progressive rock music. It’s especially indicated for those who are fans of the classic prog bands of the 70’s, like Yes, Gentle Giant and Emerson, Lake & Plamer and it’s also indicated for those who loves a most recent US prog band, Echolyn. “Boris” is an album with some extremely rare excellent prog rock music with some absolutely stunning heavy guitars, flutes, weird synth sound effects and a very high quality level, both in composition and performance. Yezda Urfa is an outsider amongst the outsiders and this is one of the most obscure works I heard. So, if you’re hungry for the early 70’s prog and looking for something great you’re in the right place.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
