Jungle Life / Getting There

German prog band Birth Control formed in the late '60's, melding a heavy rock/proto-metal sound with more subtle touches of jazz and blues-steeped playing. The band hit their stride beginning in 1971 with second album Operation, though the rest of the '70s saw them flip-flopping through changes in lineup and direction. Jungle Life/Getting There collects albums made much later in the band's history, packaging 1996's Jungle Life with 1998's Getting There, two of the stronger albums from one of the group's many reunion phases. While recorded decades after the band's acme, the sound on both albums remains firmly rooted in the driving keyboards, crunchy guitars, complex time signatures, and fantastical vocals of Birth Control's '70s prog heyday.