SR was heavily seduced by the retro/smooth rock stylings of Gayngs in 2010. The supergroup’s debut album Relayted (Jagjaguwar) made our year end list and now the Midwesterners are giving their songs the remix treatment. To create the new collection of tracks, the band had seven producers follow a rigid set of rules:
To create the GAYNGS’ Regrind EP all of the stems from the bands debut album, Relayted, were arbitrarily named and compiled into a list … [A] collection of producers and musicians … were then instructed to choose only 10, without knowing what songs they came from or what instruments they contained. One could choose anything from four sax solos and six bass lines, to eight keyboards and two background vocals. The combinations that could be chosen were indefinite…the only certainty was that the parts would all be set to the tempo of 69 beats per minute.
From there, the re-grinders were free to chop, pitch-shift, and otherwise pulverize the stems into a new, cohesive song. The only rule was that they must use all 10 stems they were given, and that the tempo must remain at GAYNGS’ standard 69 bpm.
It’s an interesting concept but with somewhat mixed results in my opinion. I’m particularly enjoying the Justin Vernon vocal sample on “Sprinkle Juice” at the moment. Stream/download the entire set below (via Stereogum).
