Second, but unreleased at the time, album of the Indiana-Illinois quintet combo Yezda Urfa. Recorded in 1976 (one year after the release of their debut album), Sacred Baboon didn't see the light of the day, until Greg Walker's label Syn-Phonic (now long-defunct) made it one of their first publications in 89 on vinyl and under a different artwork a bit later on CD. The music on the album is technically well played and very eclectic progressive rock. We´re talking fast played runs, loads of tempo- and time signature changes and complex song structures. Lead vocalist Rick Rodenbaugh has a voice and vocal style that often reminds of Jon Anderson (Yes) and Yes is definitely a reference here, but it´s Gentle Giant that comes to mind most often while listening to "Sacred Baboon". While the tracks are generally very complex, they feature enough hooks and memorable moments to stand out from each other and melody is not a stranger to these guys.

Criminally misconstrued by he music industry, and therefore, kept from a posible audience that might as well give them the break that they deserved, the fact is that Yezda Urfa is one of the best names in the history of USA's seventies prog. Their first recording "Boris" was actually a demo, and so we can have this catalogue comprising a selection of ideas that are still to find a final expression in their self-financed album, but also other tracks that only appear here. All of them are damn great in their own extravagant manner. The repertoire is a combination of Yessian melodicism and Gentle Giant-like elegant management of counterpoint and dissonance, all of it properly seasoned with touches of jazz-rock, circus music, folk-pop and country. You can notice slight similarities with the earliest Happy the Man ("Beginnings" and "Death's Crown")…