One thing is certain: Birth Control are one of those bands that is likely to elicit plenty of polarizing opinions. It's odd that they seem to draw the ire more than others, as really Birth Control follow a very familiar path in Germany. If one is to study the German rock scene of the 1970s, a pattern emerges. Like many bands from there, Birth Control got started in the late 60s and began recording in the 1970/71 time frame. And like their fellow brethren, they started out more as a hard rock act. With Birth Control they were more geared toward a North American sound verse what we now would call Krautrock, but they weren't radically different either. Only a few bands from this initial explosion made it too far out of the gate before collapsing. And Birth Control were one of them.
So who were Birth Control's peers in both sound and success? Jane, Eloy, and Grobschnitt to name but a few. And each had a similar trajectory from hard rock in the early 70s (some with more Kraut-y aspects, especially Grobschnitt) to progressive rock in the mid 70s, and most of the bands then adopted a commercial sound by the latter end of the decade and the early 80s.
Birth Control were a little slower to embrace progressive rock, and stayed with hard rock longer than most. When one hears Birth Control Live from 1974, it appears Deep Purple was their blueprint. But prior to that - on Rebirth - Birth Control were dabbling with commercial music, even horn rock of all things. Then came Plastic People and the prog rock tendencies really started to come to the fore. The followup is Backdoor Possibilities, and it's here that Birth Control gave us their one and only fully fledged prog rock extravaganza. And they did not disappoint. It's an album that is disorienting more from the expectation one predicts from the band. This was certainly my own issue, not fully grasping where they were coming from. But had they been one of the countless German progressive rock bands that showed up in the mid 70s for the first time, then it would be easier to appreciate on initial impact. This isn't what we associate with Krautrock at all, but rather the symphonic prog of the era. Unfortunately Birth Control didn't enjoy great results real time, and did what everyone else was doing in Germany - they moved onto simpler more commercial realms. Eventually they recovered their Krautrock past some 25 years later, but by then they were remembered only by a loyal few.
I recently upgraded to the 2011 Boutique (UK) version that includes a full second disc dedicated to a live show in 1976. There's also 3 live tracks appended to disc 1 from another show in 1977. These latter tracks have appeared as various bonus tracks elsewhere, but it's nice to get them here in one place. To be honest, they are the better of the bonus tracks found here. The Sartory show, while certainly of interest musically, is not very well recorded. So I'd submit it's not worth getting only for this reason, but if you don't already own the CD, or it comes across cheap (as it did for me), it's worth upgrading - if only to get the 3 live tracks from 1977.
1/23/20 (new entry); 6/24/20 (LP acquired)
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