BACKDOOR POSSIBILITIES

Birth Control followed up Plastic People by toning down the hard rock side of their sound and diving straight into symphonic territory with Backdoor Possibilities, to the point where at points Bernd Noske's vocals sound like he's trying to channel Greg Lake. However, musically speaking the band only show a fairly superficial understanding of the trappings of the symphonic prog genre.

Rather than trying to get an in-depth understanding of the sources other symphonic bands were drawing on in creating their sound, the album sounds like Birth Control wrote the songs by saying "OK, we'll have a Genesis bit here... and we'll try for a Gentle Giant bit there..." and so on - and their attempts to draw on the sound of other prog bands in creating this melange are rather unconvincing. On the whole, not an album I enjoyed, and an album which even those who quite enjoyed Plastic People should probably approach with caution.