Gayngs started out small, when Ryan Olson, Zack Coulter and Adam Hurlburt of Solid Gold set out to produce a collection of songs inspired by the 10cc’s 1975 hit, “Not in Love.” However, the resulting track — the dreamy “The Gaudy Side of Town” — quickly pushed the experimental project much further than was ever anticipated, until the resulting 25-member super group took on the moniker Gayngs and set out to create an entire record. Managing to sound both nostalgic and contemporary, Gayngs carefully blended the musical offerings of everyone from Bon Iver, to Digitata, to Poliça, to Megafaun, to The Rosebuds in order to produce “Relayted” in 2010.
Super groups are a notoriously fickle undertaking: while the Notwist and Themselves collaborated together as 13 & God to produce a solid trip hop album out of two completely disparate genres, Audioslave disappointed as the mutant offspring of Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine.
The music world is a funny place; sometimes these things work and sometimes, they just don’t. Still, somewhere between the album’s dreamy vocals and tripped-out keyboard work, it is clear that Gayngs knows exactly what it’s doing and though fragments of each contributor’s musical history shines through, Gayngs is very much its own entity. Justin Vernon even transfigures his signature falsetto into the melodies of the jazzy, hip hop “Spanish Platinum” and dreamy “Faded High.” “Relayted” is gorgeously smooth, sexy and psychedelic. Listen to it below!
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