Warthur Though some prog fans may prefer later Birth Control albums such as Plastic People or Backdoor Possibilities, perhaps due to the more mannered, polished, and symphonic-leaning keyboard playing of Zeus B. Held, I greatly prefer the raw, dirty, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep-derived heavy psych-rock of Hoodoo Man, which derives much of its pleasures from the keyboard work of Wolfgang Neuser. This would be Neuser's sole album with the group, which is kind of a shame, because he's able to range from bluesy Deep Purple-esque playing to more classical-influenced organ work reminiscent of the more hard rocking moments of early ELP with ease. The distinctive Hammond organ sound would drain away from Birth Control beginning with the subsequent Rebirth, which is a shame because this album is pretty decent... shame about the horrible cover art, though.

Bmiler Birth Control followed Operation with Hoodoo Man. This time they moved to a much bigger label, CBS. Their previous album was on the very unlikely Ohr label, a label you associate with the early stuff of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, plus Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul (not Amon Duul II), Mythos, Floh de Cologne, and so on. Beside there was a lot of controversy surrounding Rolf Ulrich Kaiser, the owner of this label (as well as Pilz, and Ohr's successor labels, Die Kosmische Kurier and Kosmische Musik), particularly regarding the Cosmic Jokers.

Hoodoo Man proves, once again that these guys can rock! Just take a look at "Buy", the band attacking mindless consumerism. It's hard to believe something recorded in 1972 can hold so much relevance to this day, especially here in America. I also love that synth solo. "Suicide" is a nice jazzy piece, with electric piano. This might have more in common with jazz-leaning prog (the band often leaned towards prog to begin with, and Plastic People and Backdoor Possibilities are very much prog). "Get Down to Your Fate" is another that rocks, really love those organ riffs. "Gamma Ray" has a more funky feel to it, with the organ playing. Apparently it was released as a single and became a hit. "Hoodoo Man" is a more complex piece, still heavy but with prog leanings, while the last piece is an instrumental jam, with a famous Scottish bagpipe song played on synth at the end. There's some Scotsman named George MacKnickerick credited to playing bagpipes, but no real bagpipes to be found here.

For those who love early '70s hard rock, who don't mind the occasional prog leanings, you really can't go wrong here.