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Topic ClosedThe Gift (UK): second album finally coming!

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Direct Link To This Post Topic: The Gift (UK): second album finally coming!
    Posted: July 07 2013 at 08:05
The Gift: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2734, gave us one of the best prog albums of 2006 with their 2CD debut release 'Awake And Dreaming', and talk was in November of last year that a new album 'Land Of Shadows' would be released in January 2013.
 
It is indeed already on our site: http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=39778, added somewhat prematurely with January 2013 as the release date...
 
Well, it is finally coming to us in both CD and digital formats in November this year, with presales starting in September to coincide with Summers End.
 
Due to personal circumstances, Simon Godfrey has had to pull out of the re-mixing ‘Land Of Shadows’. He was enjoying the challenge but has had to focus his efforts elsewhere for the time being. The new helmsman is the wonderful Tim Lawrie, a brilliant young engineer who has already earned his stripes with Manning and Shineback. The initial fruits of his labour will be showcased on a cover CD of the UK 'Prog' magazine before the nights start drawing in... 
 
Not only is the Gift's sophomore release finally about to see the light of day, there is already talk of a third album!  
 
On Friday 31st May, The Gift officially signed to Bad Elephant Music. The label, brainchild of David Elliott and James Allen, is already home to The Fierce And The Dead and Shineback, so the band find themselves in prestigious company. BEM is devoted to truly progressive music, and it really does ‘do it for the art’ - a claim often made but seldom fulfilled. The band is delighted, and assure us that there will be a much shorter gap between ‘Land Of Shadows’ and its follow up. We hear dark mutterings that it will be a double concept album (!) provisionally titled ‘Pandemonium’. More of which anon....

 

As well as a new record label, the band have also announced a new six-man line-up:

The Gift’s debut album was created by a line-up which disbanded almost as soon as it formed. For Mike Morton in particular, this was profoundly frustrating, as he always had a vision for a full, concept-driven live show. In 2010, Mike joined forces with David Lloyd, and together they created The Gift’s second album, ‘Land Of Shadows’ (to be released later this year). In order to fully realise both albums onstage, the band is now a 6-man live unit.

Its members are:

  • Mike Morton: vocals, flute and acoustic guitar
  • David Lloyd: lead and rhythm guitar
  • Gary Lucas: lead and rhythm guitar
  • Franz Vitulli: bass
  • Samuele Matteucci: keyboards
  • Joe Gadian-Morton: drums and percussion

This new line-up spans 2 generations of ‘proggers’. Mike, David and Gary were there in the 70s (more hair - smaller waistlines), whereas Joe, Sam and Franz are young upstarts whose awakening came in the 90s with Spocks Beard, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree etc. They then rewound avidly through older collections (in Joe’s case, his Dad’s!) Having discovered the joys of Genesis, Yes, Crimson and co., their musical fates were sealed. So the new live sound will be a heady mixture of vintage and contemporary...           

 
Album sampler:
 
 
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2013 at 14:29
I don't know if they can beat the quality of the first one, who was a masterpiece!
Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 01 2014 at 12:42

From: http://thegiftmusic.com/news.php:

Bad Elephant Music is proud to announce that 'Land of Shadows', the much-anticipated sophomore release from symphonic prog masters The Gift, will be released on 5th May 2014.

Mike Morton, principal songwriter and vocalist with The Gift, said...”We are genuinely thrilled about ‘Land Of Shadows’. The Gift don’t do things quickly, but even by our standards this one was a long time coming. Part of the reason was our determination not just to remake ‘Awake And Dreaming’, which we could so easily have done. The new album is still very much us. We’re still telling tall tales and mixing up vintage with modern sounds, but this time around things are more ‘imminent’; more ‘live’. We’ve stripped back the layers and focused more on the song. But as card carrying proggers we still couldn’t resist throwing in a 20 minute beast about a near death experience... For those who like their music emotional, complex and occasionally grandiose, it’ll be right up your street.”

BEM’s CEO, David Elliott, said...“Releasing an album by The Gift is the fulfilment of a long-standing personal dream. Awake And Dreaming is one of my favourite albums from the start of the progressive rock ‘Renaissance’ of the mid-Noughties, and it’s a shame that Mike wasn't able to consolidate on the critical acclaim that the album received - due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control. With this new album - and a new lineup which will take The Gift’s vision to the stage in 2014 - we’ll finally see what this remarkable band can do.”

Pre-orders will open on 31st March - more details will follow soon. The release will be preceded by a digital single, The Willows, which will be available from the Bad Elephant Music website from 10th March.


1. I Sing Of Change (1:04)
2. The Willows (12:00)
3. Road Runs On 'Til Morning (7:04)
4. Walk Into The Water (6:19)
5. Too Many Hands (5:12)
6. You Are The Song (4:17)
7. The Comforting Cold (19:39)
8. As (1:19)

Only two tracks are streamable at the moment, but the whole thing should be available to sample on bandcamp in the fullness of time: http://music.badelephant.co.uk/album/land-of-shadows.
 
Also from the band's website:
The Gift’s definitive line-up:  18th Jan 2014
 
"After an exhausting round of auditions, the band has finally appointed a new drummer and bass player. Joseph Morton left a larger-than-life hole when he vacated the drum stool for his studies back in September. Finding the right replacement was never going to be easy, but the inimitable Scott Tipler (from the wild and eclectic ‘Fuzzy Nautilus’) is more than man enough for the task, bringing swing, power and panache to the band’s sound. Dave Leak (aka ‘Lex’) is a wonderful bassist and a very good chap. This line-up is built to last, and the band are now rehearsing diligently for a series of important gigs throughout 2014."
 
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