Gift

There are more than one artist by the name "Gift". 1) German heavy prog band formed in 1969. 2) Portuguese group formed in 1994. 3) Norwegian rock group, previously known as Avant Garde 4) Polish rock band from S?upsk whose music blends grunge and funk. 5) Solo power-electronics project from the vocalist of Operation Cleansweep. 6) A side-project of Poison Idea's Jerry A 7) Japanese visual kei band : RIGHT TAG IS: ??? 1)

1) German heavy prog band formed in 1969.
2) Portuguese group formed in 1994.
3) Norwegian rock group, previously known as Avant Garde
4) Polish rock band from S?upsk whose music blends grunge and funk.
5) Solo power-electronics project from the vocalist of Operation Cleansweep.
6) A side-project of Poison Idea's Jerry A
7) Japanese visual kei band : RIGHT TAG IS: ???


1)
Gift were one of those "no compromise" heavy progressive bands, who've now achieved a considerable cult status. They started up in 1969 as the school band Phallus Dei. Three years later Uwe Patzke (bass, vocals), Helmut Treichel (vocals), Rainer Baur (guitar) and Hermann Lanze (drums, percussion) recorded the first Gift album at Union Studios in Munich, produced by Otto B. Hartmann. Nick Woodland (guitar) was listed on the sleeve of their first album, but he had quit Gift before the recording session began, to join Subject Esq., later Sahara. The album comprised eight songs with no flutes, no woodwinds and no keyboards, just plain hard guitar riffs, to be compared to Hairy Chapter. Some of the lyrics had clear anti-drugs messages.

Recently (1990) Second Battle reissued this album in its original cover. Helmut Treichel left in 1973 and was replaced with Dieter Atterer (guitar, vocals). "Blue Apple" (1974) was also basically a heavy guitar album, but also featured keyboards courtesy of Dieter Frei (organ, piano, moog, mellotron, vocals). The album was recorded in Hamburg at Teldec Studios with Hartmann and Thomas Kukuck engineering. Both Gift albums are fine examples of German heavy progressive rock.

2)
The Gift was initially a parallel project of the Dead Souls, Nuno Gon?alves and Miguel Ribeiro's band at the time. The evolution from one project to another was natural, as they felt the Dead Souls sound was limited to the instruments they were using (guitar, drums and bass) and the need to experiment with new sounds and explore new musical paths was rapidly growing. So, what started to be a side project for these two young men taking their first steps in music got bigger and more important in their lives.

Starting off with two members, The Gift grew to be a four member band with Ricardo Braga and Janita, the latter in vocals. Janita stayed in the band for a short period, being replaced by S?nia Tavares along the way.

S?nia joined the band almost by accident and, despite having been essential to The Gift's new sound, at the time the choice of a female voice was not welcomed by Nuno who couldn't imagine a girl singing in the group. The situation got worse as S?nia would not say a single word during the first rehearsals and shied away from the rest of the band. One day she broke her silence, began to sing and immediately wrote the group's first song: Lenor. The Gift's first step was taken.

From that day on and until May 1997 The Gift was 100% committed to preparing their first record, with the intention of showing its music to the media and labels. From this effort ?Digital Atmosphere? was born, a six track enhanced CD featuring interviews and videos, recorded at home but not available in stores.

In that same year the band went on the road, playing at over 30 theatres (many of which sold out) and releasing at the end of the tour a video with the Bel?m Cultural Centre and the Alcoba?a Cine-Teatro's shows.

Soon after the Digital Atmosphere Tour was over, Ricardo Braga left the band. The Gift was now a four member group again and established the goal of releasing a new record as an independent band, paying for all the costs and without any kind of support from a record label.

This goal was met in November 1998 with the release of ?Vinyl?, the band's first true record, which combined the potentials of new technologies (samples and synthesizers) with classical instruments (violins, cello, trumpet, saxophone?).

3)
Gift is a Norwegian (experimental) rock band which were started in 2007. They still haven't released any albums/EPs.

4)
Gift is a Polish rock band found in S?upsk in 1995. Their music is a blend of grunge and funk music.

Official website:
http://www.gift.rock.superhost.pl/home.html

6)
Jerry A (vocals, guitar)
May-May Del Castro (vocals, bass)
Thee Slayer Hippy (drums)