GIFT

Formed as Phallus Dei in 1969, this German outfit from Augsberg featured British guitarist Nick Woodland along with singer Helmut Treichel, guitarist Rainer Baur, bassist Uwe Patzke and drummer Hermann Lange in the original line-up.As Phallus Dei they reputedly recorded an album, which was never released, and afterwards the band changed its name to Gift and secured a deal with the Telefunken label, but at the time Woodland had already departed and joined Sahara, although his name appeared in the original vinyl version of the first album.Recorded at the Union Studios in Munich, Gift's self-titled debut was released in 1972.

Obviously influenced by the British Hard Rock bands of the time, Gift played a powerful Hard Rock with strong progressive flourishes and lots of jamming parts in the Kraut Rock tradition of many German Hard/Psych Rock acts, despite their tracks being actually rather short.The music is very energetic and edgy all the way with a pounding rhythm section and numerous impressive guitar leads, while Treichel prooved to be an excellent singer with his quite British-accented voice.While the negative point of the album tends to be the similarity between the pieces of the album, the combination between these angular Hard Rock riifs with the inventive grooves and the tyipcal Kraut-styled middle-part jams is mostly working well.Expressive vocals with good choruses, fiery solos and a good dose of changing tempos result a bunch of dynamic and adventurous compositions.Often the album retains a grandiose, emphatic and haunting atmosphere, based on Baur's classy guitar exercises, while a couple of tracks feature some good flute parts of unknown origin.

Guitar-based Hard Prog of good quality.The alternation between down- and uptempo grooves along with the standard Kraut Rock atmosphere in the instrumental parts are sure to satisfy all listeners of trully dynamic rockin' vibes.Recommended.