HOODOO MAN

I remember watching this album cover on a music store when I was a teenager. I did not really take it seriously: it looked lie a funny cover for a funny record. And I guess, after listening to it after several decades, it´s also easy to see why it didn´t make this band huge: German band Birth Control had, obviously,fine musicians, but their sound was definitely too derivative. Some sparks of originality do shine here and there, eventually: the classic hard rock anthem Gamma Ray is one. But for most part this band was doing exactly what most rock bands were doing at the time, and better. Here the main influence seems to be The Doors and Uriah Heep (Get Down to Your Fate, specially, sounds like a jazzy up early UH cut). The voice of guitarist and singer Bruno Frenze even sounds like a cross between John Lawton and David Byron, and that´s a compliment! Few good instrumentalists had the gift of also having such fine pair of pipes.

Of course the jazz rock/fusion parts are, in the end, the most interesting ones, since on those bits they show they could do something really different. And different would make a big detail at the time. With so many new and exciting things happening at the time, it is no wonder Birth Control got little attention outside their native country. Nowadays you can enjoy this album much more, I guess, as long as you don´t compare them to their competition at that period. And the inclusion of a medley of folk themes on the last cut Kaulstoss was definitely a bad idea, sounding too appellative in a record in desperate need of original ideas. A good production helped here, and the excellent musicianship show they had potential to go much further. Fortunately they did.

Rating: 3 stars. A good heavy prog record with strong jazz influences that probably sounds better today than it did when it was originally released. If you like the style, go for it.