The Recommender

Super-groups or collectives always make us a little wary.  There’s perhaps something insincere about them, or maybe it’s that it gives the impression their individual parts simply aren’t that good to start with, making them join up in the hope that it improves them (don’t even look up last year’s Chickenfoot).  In fact, quite often the separated parts were fine before hand (Velvet Revolver, The Travelling Wilburys), so clumping them together often creates something similar to a 3 year old’s painting, that kind of brown durge.  Well, if you needed any reasons to drop the cynicism then we might well have found it.  Gayngs is a 20+ collection of musicians, utilising several members selected from a variety of bands, such as Bon Iver, Solid Gold, Ryhmesayers, Leisure Birds and Lookbook, amongst others, all headed up by Ryan Olsen, a producer from Minneapolis.  Accumulating such a strong and varied cluster of artists was an achievement in itself, but they’ve seemingly managed to create something that transcends them all, making music that steps out from each of their individual pigeon holes.  Tunes this smooth, atmospheric and creamy haven’t been done this successfully since the likes of Zero 7′s Simple Things, or Air’s Moon Safari.  The music takes it’s time with every track, wafting into the room like a hazy smoke, building each instrument in layers, before the vocals supply the sweetest of cherry’s on top.  They’ve now completed their album, Relayted, with a release date set for mid-May on the JagJaguwar label.  The entire piece has a slow, majestic, ambient groove throughout the album, tipping it’s gentlemanly thanks to the likes of 10cc, the 70s pop pioneers, to whom they openly acknowledge have had a large influence on their work.  It’s not an incorrect description, but music often defined as ‘chilled’ perhaps misses the sexual energy and warmth found on work as good as this.  Talking of sexual energy, they’ve also released three stylish teaser trailer videos (see below) in the build up to the albums launch.  For having accomplished the difficult task of successfully extracting the talents of a collective, whilst leaving their egos out of it, Ryan Olsen has perhaps re-cast the template for all future supergroups.    (MB)

Find them here:         Myspace

Hear them here:        GAYNGS – THE GAUDY SIDE OF TOWN