Gamma Like Very Ultra
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Gamma Like Very Ultra

Tucson, Arizona, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2010 | SELF

Tucson, Arizona, United States | SELF
Established on Jan, 2010
Band Rock Avant-garde

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"by sheer force of will"

You can separate music (or, well, pretty much any relationship, really) into two groups: 1) things that work well together, and 2) things that don’t really belong together. But occasionally, there is a third path, and this path is risky. It’s the combination of things that may not make a whole lot of sense when you try to envision it, but when you actually hear it, it starts to click in a way that you may have never thought possible.
Gamma Like Very Ultra took that third path.
This experimental Tucson trio features distorted bass, heavy-but-dance-y drum rhythms, synths, and a trumpet – no vocals. At times, the music will shift from Kraftwerk to LCD Soundsystem to Death From Above 1979 to Miles-Davis-recording-Bitches-Brew and back again. To make things even more confusing/awesome, GLVU enlisted the help of 60s rock-n-roll wizard Matt Rendon and his Midtown Island studios to produce their new album, out June 27 on Wiener Records – an imprint on the Burger empire.
None of this should make any sense whatsoever, but it does. And it’s great. - The Sidestreets Podcast


"Cassette Review: Gamma Like Very Ultra "Germs Germs Germs Germs""

I'm not sure what Gamma Like Very Ultra means, but it's fun to say. And I'm not sure why the words "germs" is in the title of this four times but it does make me think of germs and how they're all over us and bad... well, mostly. We have good germs too they tell me. Did you know that hand sanitizer actually kills good germs and they're saying it's bad for us because it can also be linked to those BPA things in plastic which causes cancer? Yeah, the day I learned that hand sanitizer was bad for me was a sad, sad day indeed. Though since having a three year old I don't use hand sanitizer as much (well, up until I stopped) because I just always find myself washing my hands. One day I'm just going to wash my skin off I think.

"Germs Germs Germs Germs" begins with the sounds of electronic boop boop boop rock. It goes in a loop and sounds somewhat like "Puttin' on the Ritz" to me. There is a wild break down and then a trumpet comes out which gives of a Mariachi vibe. It's Rush meets Primus and at my very thought of that I also begin to consider this to be prog rock. The trumpet returns and it begins to sound like a snake charmer. Is that a thing? Is there 'snakecharmercore"? That'd be something I might want to hear. A little bit of The Doors comes out by the end of Side A and I can't help but think that this is music which would fit right in on "The Basketball Diaries" (one of my favorite soundtracks which I own on cassette)

On the flip side we have whooshes and whirrs. There is a serious tone to this now- like this music is on a mission and it will not stop until it is complete. It's between an action movie and "Alias" in that way, as you feel like someone has been given a most vital task to do and this is them doing it in the musical montage. Tapping turns into high notes and I begin to hear Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" if only for the line "Are you ready for. ready for". Faster funk brings on space whirrs and then there are horns and drums as well. As the music grows jazzy I begin to think of it on the cusp of ska, though it might be closer to Catch 22 who is kind of the non-ska of ska. There are also synth sounds which come out between Moog and video game.

There is nothing I can compare this with. It's instrumental but even if it had vocals it has no equal. The music though is between a different level of genres, as I noted things such as prog rock, jazz and even ska. But the one thing that they all share in common and the one backbone of this music on the whole is that it just rocks. I'm always up for listening to anything- to an extent- and I'm also 100% curious to hear those artists which sound like no other, whether I end up liking them or not. This is definitely something that I like and not just because it is unique but because the passion behind it just bleeds through so clearly to me. - Raised by Gypsies


"B-Sides: Gamma Like Very Ultra Like Very Tape Release"

Do you like beats? Do you like horns? Do you like synth? Well, then it's time to dive head first into Germs Germs Germs, the new tape from Gamma Like Very Ultra. Part jazz, part math rock, part electro pop, the album is frenetic and jammy in all the right ways—keeping it interesting despite being strictly instrumental. The spaced out release was recorded locally at the now (extremely tragically) defunct Midtown Island Studios by Matt Rendon of The Resonars, adding one more standout record to the recording studio's legacy of solid Tucson albums.

Gamma Like Very Ultra will be slinging their new cassettes at a release show at Solar Culture Gallery (31 E. Toole Ave.) on Saturday, June 27. Beginning at 9 p.m., fellow Tucsonans Mik and Scott and Wight Lhite will kick off this celebration of funky, weird local music. Tickets will be sold at the door the day of the show for $6. - Tucson Weekly


Discography

Adventure Land EP (available on Myspace downloads)
Live tracks are also found on our Myspace page.

www.myspace.com/gammalikeveryultra

Photos

Bio

GAMMA LIKE VERY ULTRA returns to bring their supersonic fuzzy freak-outs to your ear ways. GLVU hopscotches along the entrails of free jazz and space rock -- preceded by fellow travelers Sonic Youth, Trans Am, Mothers of Invention and Primus--wherever the pebble falls. Technicolor dreams, moldy primordial slime, exploding space stations --Gamma Like Very Ultra is all this and more, on the floor and the tape deck.


Band Members