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Gary V

Gary V

ANTI- Records is pleased to announce the release of Mamba, the sophomore album from South Africa-bred artist Gary V. Available now, Mamba offers a moody but melody-driven strain of psych-inflected post-punk.

Recorded with producer Chris Woodhouse (Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall), Mamba explores themes of self-inflicted isolation, working-class hopelessness, and the emotional damage of technology addiction. “Most of these new songs came from taking in what’s going on in the world today, and being afraid of the future we’re headed toward,” notes Garett van der Spek, the L.A.-based singer/songwriter.

With its sonic complexity and understated emotional depth, Mamba has a double meaning to its title. “It’s the name of a venomous snake, and in my hometown it’s a slang term for the biggest or meanest of something,” van der Spek points out.

As he explains, the word mamba ultimately embodies the sense of fear and defiance threaded throughout the record and especially evident in its epic title track. “The song is partly about letting go of that fear,” says van der Spek. “When I say ‘Give me the mamba,’ I mean ‘Give me the whole experience’: the good and the bad and everything else that might exist in between.”