BIRTH CONTROL LIVE

Featuring five extended versions of pieces taken from the albums 'Operation' and 'Hoodoo Man', this excellent live offering from the taboo-baiting German prog-rock outfit Birth Control finds the group in impressively muscular mode. Stretching such nuggets as 'The Work Is Done' and 'Gamma Ray' into epic new forms, this double-sided 1974 release - the group's first live album - showcases Birth Control very much near the apex of the impressive early powers. Of course, like many other 1970s rock groups, their later material starts to edge closer towards the realms of lightweights pop, yet for a brief while Birth Control truly were a formidable beast, blending jagged riffs, pounding percussion assaults and a series of deliberately controversial subject matters(abortion, murder, deviant sexuality) into their own powerful brew of rocked-up progressive proto-metal. Hard, edgy, tough and very impressive, this is a fine live album indeed. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012