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5.0 out of 5 stars
Birth Control, January 10, 2009
This review is from: Very Best of (Audio CD)
Surging Birth Control
Berlin group Birth Control formed in mid 1968 from the post war ashes of the Earls and the Gents. The initial members were: ex Dynamites Bernd Koschmidder (bass), Reinhold Sobotta (organ), Rolf Gurra (saxophone and vocals), Fritz Groeger (vocals), Klaus Orso (guitar), Reiner Borchert (guitar), and actor Hugo Egon Balder (percussion, later replaced by ex Black Phantoms / Odd Persons drummer / vocalist Bernd Noske. (band named in protest to the Pope's statement that the pill was sinful). Birth Control started out with their 1969 debut single, "October"/ "Freedom" released on Amadeo Records and a poorly produced debut which included a cover of the Doors' "Light My Fire". It was not until their 1971 Operation that all engines were operating full steam ahead with the added strength of Hartmut Scheulgens on organ that overloaded gloriously on their bombastic 1971 Operation, later replaced by Dynamites Fritz Groger. Operation crunched forward with the superb "Stop Little Lady" raptured with gale force vox and Bruno Frenzel's hurricane guitar riffs. The heavy loaded "The Work Is Done" was really the sum of of Birth Control strengthened by string / horn overlay and simulated into powerful drumming and organ virtuosi. Here lies the power of Birth Control with their nine -piece string section plus a brass group that created this very large sound and resulting in the band being voted as second best album of 1971. Nothing could escape Sobotta's grinding prognosis and victims included "Just Before The Sun Will Rise" and "Flesh And Blood" while their Prog 11min epic "Let Us Do It Now" swivels between drum and guitar tempo. Birth Control followed up with the chomping Hoodoo Man with the narrative Doors styled anti-war "Gamma Ray". Duel lead threshes out of "She's Got Nothing On You" in zestful Spooky Tooth rage while sturdy hammond rumbles forth on the Jon Lord styled "Buy". By 1973 ex Mushroom /Eternal Light keyboardist Wolfgang "Wölle" Neuser and ex Metropolitan bassist Peter Foller joined which slowly veered into a Prog styled repertoire. Birth Control's 1975 Plastic People with gifted ex Sound Edge/Prontosaurus keyboardist Zeus B. Held yielded the spacy "My Mind" with atmospheric use of cello by Holderlin's Jochen von Grumbkow who also appeared on Tangerine Dream's Zeit. Organsit Zeus B. Held is also responsible for the Mellotron which he uses on the symphonic East Of Eden styled "Tiny Flashlight". Plastic People was superb with a profound diversity namely the Keef Hartley styled "This Song Is For You" to the synth Prog jarring title track.
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