Plastic People

It was with its 1975 album that the German band Birth Control really started drifting away from its Deep Purple–influenced organ grinding. While Plastic People is still rooted in the adventurous prog rock of the earlier Birth Control albums, Reinhold Sobotta’s growing love for the repetitive tones, drones, and oscillations of analog synths gave these recordings deep Krautrock textures. The opening nine-and-a-half-minute title track is a multilayered collage of these varying keyboard sounds. Singer Fritz Groeger soulfully wails alongside Sobotta, sounding a bit like The Guess Who’s Burton Cummings. “Rockin' Rollin' Roller” starts with dexterous leads by guitarists Klaus Orso and Reiner Borchert. Sobotta’s synthesizers take on some Eastern melodies that blend well with Orso and Borchert’s intertwined harmonic guitar leads. During the opening of “My Mind,” Birth Control takes a different approach as Groeger croons over washed-out synthesizer tones and avant-garde string arrangements that sound inspired by John Cale. Halfway through the rhythm section kicks in, but the song remains one of the album's headiest selections.