Andre Gibson's Universal Togetherness Band. Apart: Demos 1980-1984.

Between 1979 and 1982, The Universal Togetherness Band tracked unearthly portions of their sprawling songbook for bewildered students in Columbia College’s audio engineering program. Storming the gates of Chicago’s premier recording studios, the erudite party band explored permutations of soul, jazz-fusion, new wave, and disco with little regard for studio rates or availability of magnetic tape.

By 1982, Chicago’s Universal Togetherness Band were still looking for that elusive major label deal. Frontman Andre Gibson was making ends meet working at the Mercantile Exchange, pacing the noisy trading floor from 6AM to 2PM before heading into Zenith DB studios with Malcolm Chisholm to work on his ongoing Columbia College recording project. “Paper Chase” was inspired by the scraps strewn across the ground at the end of the trading day. Like all the other Universal Togetherness Band recordings, “Paper Chase” was also lost to the grind of life and dashed dreams, unavailable until now. “You can’t keep chasing paper,” Gibson warned. “Sometimes you gotta let go and let it happen for you.”