TOMORROW'S GIFT

TOMORROW'S GIFT was an early German prog rock band, totally avoiding the Krautrock sound like many of their contemporaries (CAN, AMON DÜÜL II, etc.) and going for an early, rough, unpolished prog rock sound, much like JETHRO TULL. The band featured female vocalist Ellen Meyer, who apparently had a very poor grasp of the English language. If you thought ELOY's Frank Bornemann had trouble with the English language, wait until you hear this lady. Another notworthy member is guitarist Carlo Karges. He was later a member of NOVALIS (only on their self-entitled second album from 1975), and in the 1980s, was found playing for Nena (the lady who gave us that worn-out synth-pop hit, "99 Red Balloons", or as it's known in German, "99 Luftballoons"). Well, don't let the Nena connections scare you off, 1984 was a totally different world from 1970, and it really isn't too much different from comparing what GENESIS did in 1970 ("Trespass") to what the did in 1983 (their self-entitled album with "Illegal Alien").

Anyway, the self-entitled album from TOMORROW'S GIFT was their debut, and a double album released on a very short lived label called +Plus+ (owned by IKARUS member Jochen Petersen). Here you get early prog, much in the British style, with only the ridiculous accented vocals of Ellen Meyer herself to reveal this isn't British. "Prayin' To Satan" is that prime example, get a load on how she sings the word "Satan"! There's some gems here too like "Breeds There a Man" and "King in a Nook". The former even features the use of clavinet, I guess that shouldn't be any surprise, since Hohner, famous for accordions and harmonicas, made clavinets, and the company was based in Germany. But then this album also has its pitfalls. Double album but not enough good material to warrant anything more than a single album set. The most problematic is "The First Seasons After the Destruction". At 13 minutes, it degenerates in to a pointless wankfest, and that boring drum solo sure doesn't help manners any. The other lenthy cut, the 8 minute "Sandy Concert" is another pointless piece, with Jochen Petersen guesting on sax here. It's basically a sax solo with a riff repeated ad nauseum.

Not the best album on the +Plus+ label (that goes to the self-entitled IKARUS album from 1971, who was definately a better band). Anyway, this album would be a masterpiece if they rid of the wankfests on the lengthier pieces, other than that, only a good, not great early prog album.