Birth Control – Operation

If you collect on the Ohr label, you know of all the great Krautrock and electronic. Everything from the first four Tangerine Dream albums, the first album from Mythos, Amon Duul (not Amon Duul II), Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel, Xhol, and so on. There is no doubt probably the most untypical album you'll find on the Ohr label is Birth Control's Operation. This band has much more in common with Deep Purple or Uriah Heep (or perhaps Atomic Rooster), with emphasis on heavy guitar riffs and lots of Hammond organ than anything you usually expect from Ohr. Yes, this is early hard rock with prog rock leanings. "Stop Little Lady" is proof of this, strong, hard rock influenced vocals, with organ. "The Work is Done" is about the Vietnam war. Much of the rest of the album is in this similar heavy rock vein, except for "Let Us Do It Now". This is where they go a more orchestrated direction, this song even has strings on it (the orchestrations remind me of David Axelord's Song of Innocence). It also has a psychedelic vibe going on. This is actually very different from the rest of the album. Imagine Deep Purple's In Rock with "April" (from their self-entitled album, which was also heavily orchestrated) instead of "Child in Time" and you're not too far off. This kind of music was definitely not typical of Ohr, but it's also no surprise a much bigger label, in this case, CBS, picked up on the band. Just don't expect Krautrock on the lines of Can, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul II, etc., but if you like that British style organ/guitar driven heavy rock, this comes recommended.

I also forgot the album cover caused lots of controversy, depicting a bug-like creature eating babies and Pope Paul VI watching on (I assume that's Paul VI being depicted, as he was the pope at the time). The band was open about their politics and objected to Pope Paul VI's opposition to birth control. This cover was banned in many countries, so the British (Charisma) and French (Philips) versions all had different covers, and the British version was simply called Birth Control and not to be confused with the 1970 German debut album.