1977's Increase has Germany's Birth Control producing a sound that is a little less progressive than their earlier work, although the body of this album still incorporates strong doses of Moog and Hammond keyboard undertakings from Zeus B. Held. The songs have a more established and structural feel to them, especially pieces like "Fight for You" and "Until the Night." Birth Control's sense of humor is still prevalent as well, brought about in the lyrics of the opening "Skate-Board Sue," but where the music is concerned, they began to reveal influences from Western '70s rock, even though their fundamental progressive sound remains at the forefront. There's a definitive jazz lean which surfaces through most of the tracks, while the guitar-led rhythms are steady and dominating…

Together with "Hoodoo Man" this album marks the peak in the career of the german band Birth Control. Here we have diversity from heavy boogie hard rock to funk to acoustic ballads. If you like Deep Purple/Uriah Heep style of "progressive hard rock" then you will enjoy this album.

This important German hard/heavy/progressive rock band was formed in Berlin in 1968 and they started as a mainly instrumental jazz rock outfit. Despite some line-up changes they recorded four studio albums in four years' time. In these albums anyone can detect the changes of their sound, from the early jazz rock style to heavy prog rock. However, it's their 1975 release ''Plastic People'', which established them as a progressive rock band. This amazing album is a mix of heavy progressive music with krautrock, symphonic tendencies and jazzy doses. Keeping their well-known hard 'n' heavy style Birth Control added a lot of different elements in their music,making this album a must-have record. Numerous fantastic interplays, jazzy passages, great use of keyboards and a krautrock atmosphere with intense vocals are mixed with heavy rock to result a memorable release.

"Hoodoo Man" was Birth Control's third, their most famous and best-selling album not only due to its daring funny artwork. They've been accused those days by UK magazine Melody Maker being No. 1 copyists but we all know well that progressive rock music coming from Germany hadn't been taken really serious by British press and had been tagged with the disdainfully meant label Krautrock (not exactly what we understand nowadays by this). Certainly it might be true that they were using elements of famous hard and psyche rock bands from late 60's/early 70's but one has well to admit that they combined all those influences quite well with some other more progressive ones. Thus we get offered here some music based on harder-edged blues rock with plenty of organ sound, some jazzy pads (as in "Suicide") and a couple of synthesizer sections like in "Buy!", "Kaulstoss" and their ever lasting staple hit "Gamma Ray".

The new BIRTH CONTROL album "OPEN UP" will be released on June 3rd, 2022. 8 new studio tracks, including a reworking of the 1972 "superhit" GAMMA RAY, are put on the turntable. The new studio album "OPEN UP" shows the creativity and range of the current line-up, their wealth of ideas and the motivation to get to the heart of BIRTH CONTROL in 54 minutes. The album was conceived during the 2020 lockdown and recorded between January and June 2021. The release is on June 3, 2022 as LP/CD/Digital.

In 1975 Bernd Noske was on tour in Spain with his famous band Birth Control. Deeply impressed from the country and the people he take the liberty to form a solo album. This album is a mirror of his personal impressions. In 1979 the work was done. Now - after 20 long years - finally you can listen to this wonderful music.

Backdoor Possibilities emerges as a rather fragmented and patchy concept album about a businessman who becomes trapped in an elevator with death himself, who, in turn, tries to convince the man that life is more important than schedules and the blandness of everyday ordinance. With 14 tracks that mostly fall under the five-minute range, Birth Control's main story line loses its grasp quickly, but the music itself almost instantly takes over and blurs the band's allegorical idea, replacing it with detours of jazz- and rock-styled excursions. The album arises as an art rock piece with progressive rock penchants surrounding the perimeter, using a multitude of peculiar instruments like finger cymbals, congas, sand blocks, and sonor drums to instill the abstractness of the intentioned concept…

It's just good old Birth Control which we all like: lots of roaring Hammond organs, longer tracks with some hard rocking soloing mixed with simpler rock'n'roll tunes, Bernd Noske's vocals with slightly unusual accent and all the other attributes of this group created in early 70s of last century. "Alsatian" really proves that in XXI century Birth Control and its heavy prog are still alive. Compositions are much longer than in last proceeded releases, what gives opportunity for all musicians to show what they can with their instruments. They also offer very good balance of hard and soft material. The whole album is also quite long so it gives us clear impression that for sure this time heads of musicians were full of many ideas which they wanted to present it their music.

Birth Control's straightforward progressive rock sound is perfectly demonstrated on Birth Control Live, recorded in June 1974. With Zeuss B. Held's organ and Wurlitzer contributing to their simplistic keyboard and vocal arrangements, the album takes favorites like "The Work Is Done" and "She's Got Nothing on You" and dresses them up a bit, proving that the band can be just as exciting in concert as on their studio albums. Much like Amon Düül II or even Atomic Rooster to a certain extent, Birth Control puts great emphasis on their keyboards, with lead vocalist Peter Föller adding some humorous support from time to time…

This one is a pretty good rock album in the vein of Deep Purple (around "Burn") by them. Typical for the year of release there are some of those inevitable disco/funk rhythms. Maybe it's not their best effort but definitely worth of attention and not bringing shame on band.

After the funk-jazz of Increase and the all-out disco-rock of Titanic, the band reverted to their old, pre-prog heavy rock style. On the one hand, it feels like backward progress, on the other, it seems a more graceful way to age-playing up to your strengths as opposed to trying to keep up with the times in musical idioms that are an ill fit. No real prog here, save perhaps on the gradually-developing "King of An Island". Some superior surging rockers here, though: "Nuclear Reactor", "Get Ready To Run" and "Greedy Eyes", all of which remain in the band's live repertoire.

Birth Control's second album, Operation, stands as one of the band's finest recordings, getting the vote as the second best album of 1971 by one of Germany's leading music magazines. Operation has Birth Control employing a nine-piece string section as well as a smaller brass entourage in order to produce a larger sound, and while their progressive air is just beginning to flourish, a rather large difference in musical strength and instrumental craft is noted right away. Not fully abstract or left-of-center just yet, the powerful crunch of Bruno Frenzel's guitar surely leads the way, dominating the rhythms of every track while complimenting the aeronautics of the keyboard passages. With the tempos quicker because of the stern synthesizer work, the entire album moves along at a brisk pace…

Formed in Berlin in 1968, Birth Control were known for a progressive hard rock sound fused will elements of jazz, psychedelia and Krautrock. A surreal concept work from 1976 recorded by legendary producer Conny Plank, Backdoor Possibilities arguably marked their final creative peak, combining rock, jazz and avant-garde stylings with intricate polyrhythmic textures and lyrical nods to Faust and Odysseus. This expanded double disc edition has been remastered by Zeus B. Held and features three bonus live tracks recorded in Korbach on 1 May 1977, as well as a bonus live disc taped at the famous Sartory Saal in Cologne on 24 September 1976.

Great set featuring the best tracks from the 1972 to 1975 period including the group's signature track "Gamma Ray". Birth Control is among the longest running german bands and were formed wayback in 1968 in Berlin. The group had several line-up changes over the years and fused Krautrock with progressive rock and the blues rock genre, with percussive keyboards & synthesizer effects an unique sound was created.