UK prog rockers The Gift released their secnd album Land Of Shadows in 2014, Prog Magazine introduced the band to our readers for the very first time...
The Gift are one of the most ambitious prog outfits of the last 10 years. Their 2006 debut Awake And Dreaming was backed by our very own Nick Shilton who, according to frontman Mike Morton, “was the only journalist who championed us and encouraged us to approach the likes of Cyclops Records. Cyclops, along with Giant Electric Pea, were just about the only labels supporting and producing progressive music.”
The Gift reference the golden greats, with Gabriel-era Genesis and The Enid being massive influences, while using the latest contemporary equipment and nodding in the general sonic direction of the likes of Big Big Train and Haken. Their unique aural palette is a heady melange of wild key changes, complex time signatures and literate, questioning lyrical content.
Morton has helmed the band since its inception in 2003, taking the group in a prog-concept direction after being angered by the conflict in Iraq and driving that creative fury into the suite of songs that comprises Awake And Dreaming, released by the aforementioned Cyclops Records in 2006.
“I referenced an obscure 60s comedy in the last line of the track: ‘On a day they shouted war and no one came,’ the frontman explains. “This was part desire for an awakening in the human race to the futility and savagery of war and part a dreamlike idea of soldiers actually not turning up for the war itself.”
Morton’s first brush with prog came much earlier – the first gig he attended was Genesis at the Hammersmith Odeon on the A Trick Of The Tail tour in 1976. “As a 14-year-old kid, I was awestruck,” he says. “It still ranks as the best gig I ever saw.”
As well as fronting The Gift, Morton also plays in the Genesis tribute act Book Of Genesis, “partly as homage to that influential Gabriel-era incarnation”.
Like a lot of their contemporaries, The Gift favour a DIY approach to their work, which has kept the band together, particularly during the lean years of the last decade. But with the prog renaissance in the UK showing no signs of slowing down any time soon, The Gift are set to return to action this year: “With our own label,” Morton explains, “we can effectively run ourselves and keep the band releasing material without compromising creative integrity.”
Morton is the driving force in an outfit that has seen many line-up changes over the years, the earliest including The Enid’s David Storey. Fast forwarding to 2012 sees the band about to release a new album on their own imprint Zen Records, called Land Of Shadows, as well as re-releasing the epic Awake And Dreaming. They’re also about to tour again after a long hiatus, starting at Danfest in Leicester. Meanwhile, the next generation of proggers is evident in the band’s current line-up, which includes Mike’s son Joseph.
