It’s certainly been some time since I’ve had a moment to update the news section! Lots of things have been going on for me and the band recently and it’s all kept me quite busy.
First off, I want to mention our exclusive holiday song, “The Little Drummer Boy,” which is available FREE for your listening pleasure at our webstore. We’ve included both a Real Audio file and mp3 format, so be sure to take a listen (and download it for later enjoyment).
Secondly, I’m sure you’ve noticed the new look of the website; we’ve updated it in the style of…. our next album! Yes, we will be releasing a full-length album on Projekt Records this coming new year. Entitled Temporal, it features music from points covering our entire career, including 6 tracks which have never appeared on any Love Spirals Downwards albums. Check out the Releases section for further details.
Ryan Lum may have tamed the breakbeat. His duo with vocalist Suzanne Perry, Love Spirals Downwards, has turned out three brilliant albums of majestic, guitar-wash dream-pop on the Projekt label, rife with heavenly ballads that conjure images of exotic cultures. But on Flux, the group’s fourth album, Lum adds breakbeats to the mix without compromising the band’s signature sound.
A follower of the dance music scene since the acid house of the late ’80s, Lum had wanted to do a more electronic Love Spirals Downwards album for years, but never found the right style. “When I first heard the more ambient, ethereal breakbeat stuff, I was amazed,” he says. “I haven’t heard music that moved my soul like that in years.” So when work began on Flux, the multi-instrumentalist/producer built many of the tracks on breakbeat foundations. “I’m used to making pop songs, like an A section, a B section,” Lum says, “but half the songs on Flux don’t follow that traditional pattern. It’s like having all these different parts and having them make sense as they flow together.”
LOVE SPIRALS DOWNWARDS FOUNDER RYAN LUM DISCUSSES USING THE SONY MDM-X4 FOR THE BAND’S LATEST ALBUM, FLUX.
I got the MDM-X4 mainly to record vocals, figuring that four tracks of audio would be plenty for our vocal tracks. But soon after I started using the MDM-X4 for recording Suzanne Perry’s vocals, it became apparent to me that I could get much more out of this unit than I first thought I could from a 4-track recorder. By planning my editing, I found I could free up a track or two, which then gave me ideas to add more guitars to many of the songs, which I did. Using the MDM-X4 gave me more creative options with my guitars, which in the end helped make the songs better.
