Gift

Gift are a German heavy progressive rock band formed in 1969, originally starting as the school band Phallus Dei. The group becomes associated with cult status in the German underground and is known for a no-compromise approach that combines hard guitar-driven rock with progressive and psychedelic elements.

Early line-up and first album

The first Gift album is recorded three years after the group forms, at Union Studios in Munich, with production by Otto B. Hartmann. At that point the line-up is Uwe Patzke on bass and vocals, Helmut Treichel on vocals, Rainer Baur on guitar and Hermann Lanze on drums and percussion. Nick Woodland is listed on the sleeve of the first album, although he has already left before the recording session begins to join Subject Esq., later Sahara. The album contains eight tracks, with no flutes, woodwinds or keyboards, and focuses on straightforward hard guitar riffs. Some of the lyrics carry clear anti-drugs messages.

Blue Apple

Helmut Treichel leaves the group in 1973 and is replaced by Dieter Atterer on guitar and vocals. Gift then record Blue Apple in 1974 at Teldec Studios in Hamburg, again with Hartmann involved, alongside Thomas Kukuck on engineering. The album remains centred on heavy guitar work, but also includes keyboards from Dieter Frei, who contributes organ, piano, Moog, Mellotron and vocals. Both of the band’s albums are regarded as examples of German heavy progressive rock.

Later recognition

The group’s first album is reissued in its original cover in 1990 by Second Battle. Gift remain noted for their place in the German heavy prog and krautrock tradition, with their recorded output limited to the two albums described above.