Joe of drunkrockers.com caught a few shots of Ryan and Anji of Lovespirals at the Club Violaine 5 Year Anniversary party with formers members of The Von Trapps Nick Marshall, Rodney Rodriguez, and Matt Gleason. Rodney and Matt both played with Melodyguild for a time, and Matt is featured on the Aitu release. You can see the full set of photos from the show in the DrunkRockers Violaine Archive.
In case you didn’t hear the band’s 1 hour guest spot on Auralgasms Radio last night, don’t cry! While you did miss out on a fun chat session in the Auralgasms chatroom with Lovespirals, you can still hear a pristine archival copy of the show. Ryan and Anji chat between each song, giving not only track information, but a little insight into the music and musicians involved. Our set seemed to be a hit with the live listeners, so hopefully you’ll love it, too! BTW, this was the world premier of the SWS remix of “This Truth.”
Thanks to Mikey for setting up this fun show and to everyone who tuned in and came by to chat – especially Riki and CocteauBoy! Music provided by the Podsafe Music Network, Projekt Records, and the bands themselves.
After a long delay, you can finally purchase the newly expanded Ardor [Remastered Reissue] on iTunes. This 2007 version of Love Spirals Downwards’ classic 1994 sophomore album includes 3 bonus tracks; a live recording of the classic “Write in Water,” an unreleased outtake from the album sessions called “Oisin and Niam,” and an alternate mix of “I Could Find It Only By Chance,” also from the original album sessions. Once again, band founder, Ryan Lum, completely remastered the album from the original DATs to bring out more sonic clarity than ever before, and the artwork has been recreated from the original photograph to striking results!
The long awaited debut album by Melodyguild — the band of Love Spirals Downwards’ vocalist, Suzanne Perry — has finally been released. The ‘Aitu’ EP — originally announced in early 2003 — will officially drop June 10th, but it’s available online now via Projekt. This 4-song digipac CD is currently #6 on the Projekt Top 10 – congrats!
The April 2nd “100% Podsafe” issue of iProng Magazine features an interview with Anji discussing Lovespirals, going podsafe, getting into podcasting, music licensing, live performance vs studio recording, and much more. Also included this issue is a great article on eMusic vs Amazon downloads, interviews with fellow podsafe artists Geoff Smith and Natalie Gelman, and an article with Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes, who released their new single to the Podsafe Music Network.
100% PodSafe Edition, iProng Magazine Artist Feature on Lovespirals
For someone who isn’t familiar with Lovespirals, how would you describe it to them?
Continue reading Iprong Magazine Feature LovespiralsA joint review of our recent remastered reissue CDs on Projekt was posted by Mike Schiller to the Pop Matters website. It’s rather negative towards Idylls, alas, but below are some of the more positive quotes:
You just don’t see bands like this anymore. The whole shoegazing, atmospheric, easy-listening-gothic darkwavy movement has all but disappeared into the night, morphing neatly and quietly into the less laboriously-described genres of folk, rock, and ambient music. In the ’90s you could hardly throw a stone without pelting one of these bands in the forehead…
Love Spirals Downwards always tended a little more toward the “artistic” side of the spectrum of acts in this style. Rather than find the dance beat that would hook the Love Spirals Downwards name into the mainstream, primary instrumentalist Ryan Lum went for a more minimalist approach, more akin to the lighter side of such darkwave stalwarts as Cocteau Twins, Love is Colder than Death, and Projekt labelmate Black Tape for a Blue Girl. There was always just enough percussion to push a song along, and even then, only when that percussion was necessary. Suzanne Perry took a plaintive approach to the Lisa Gerrard-esque habit of nonsense syllables mixed with the occasional intelligible lyric, coming off as ethereal, yet human. Combined, the two made some of the prettiest, if not necessarily the most engaging music in the genre.
Continue reading Pop Matters Reviews Idylls & Ardor Reissues
Reviews are still popping up of Lovespirals’ recent album, Long Way From Home, in partial thanks to the efforts of Ariel PR who helped to push the album when it was released this past October 23rd.
Miles Klee said in Hot Indie News:
Bluesy slide guitar work sometimes shades over into Santana-like finger-meandering, and vocalist Anji Bee’s layered voice paints bright glaze over already dreamy arrangements. It’s as though the glancing disaffection of 80’s and 90’s dream-poppers has been filtered through an AM radio, a mutation that works by dint of sounding completely natural on an evolutionary view.
From the Green Arrow Radio blog:
More than melancholic music, there is a sense that they traveled with you on similar & familiar roads with the radio tuned to the same left of the dial station in the middle of wherever. After nearly a decade of artistic collaboration between singer/songwriter, Anji Bee, & multi instrumentalist & producer, Ryan Lum, it is no wonder that they have managed to put together an album of answers to questions yet asked with a subtle sultry sense of sound security.
The Celebrity Cafe‘s Ray Anderson mused:
Empty and sad, but of full of emotion, their album Long Way from Home is medicine for those that dig the alternative. How can you take a gut-wrenching classic like “Motherless Child” and make it sadder? Let the “Lovespirals” get a hold of it. It’s easy to fall into the loose, country-tinged groove of “Caught in a Groove” and let your soul be taken for a ride. By the time the “upbeat” “Lovelight” comes on, you won’t mind being “A Long Way from Home,” and I think you’ll want to stay there.
Projekt send over a review of the remastered reissues of Idylls and Ardor printed in :Ritual:, an Italian underground music magazine covering the dark, gothic, electro, and industrial spectrum. The following is an attempt at an English translation:
The dream pop to rediscover
The Californian duo made up of multi-instrumentalist Ryan Lum and singer Suzanne Perry, LSD remain one of the best-kept secrets of dream pop. Idylls, their debut originally released in 1992, shows a group that is still somewhat immature and repetitive, but already capable of fascinating listeners. The lesson of Cocteau Twins is filtered through solemn atmospheres that recall Dead Can Dance’s Within The Realms…, without neglecting nods to labelmates such as Lycia and Black Tape For A Blue Girl.
It is, however, with the later Ardor (1994) that the group would achieve its small masterpiece, thanks to songwriting that had now matured and allowed for a more varied and personal approach. On the one hand, the more ethereal moments are refined, with some passages that would not be out of place on an album by This Mortal Coil. On the other, a more concrete approach is not shunned, thanks to electric guitars that at times give the music a shoegaze edge.
It is surprising to discover how, listening back today, these albums have aged remarkably well: their original sheen, especially in the case of Ardor, is almost intact. There is nothing transcendental, however, about the bonus tracks added to the reissue — a couple of remixes, a couple of live tracks, and little else. But that hardly matters: anyone who missed them at the time will have no more excuses.
Tony Aramini
More reviews for the reissues of our first 2 albums have appeared online on MusicTap, Re:Gen Mag (Idylls and Ardor), two.one.five magazine (Idylls and Ardor), and The Mick – a downloadable PFD magazine. Some are better than others, but I guess you have to take the bad with the good on the old Internet.
Jason Moore reviewed Lovespirals’ latest album, Long Way From Home, for his Opus Zine. You can read the full review on his website.
It doesn’t feel quite right to say that Lovespirals is merely the new incarnation of Love Spirals Downwards, even though it’s pretty obvious why folks (myself included) would say that — and not just because of the name similarities. While founder/songwriter Ryan Lum has largely eschewed the gothic/darkwave overtones of his previous band, there’s still no denying that the ghosts of acts such as the Cocteau Twins still haunt their way through Lovespirals’ Long Way From Home. One need only to listen to hazy guitar strums or shimmery effects on “Empty Universe,” “Treading The Water,” or “Sundrenched” for that to become readily apparent.
And then there’s Anji Bee’s vocals. Bee lets her voice drift and sway through the album’s ten tracks in a manner recalling Love Spirals Downwards’ previous vocalists (such as Suzanne Perry), Liz Frazier (minus the glossolalia), and even Tracey Thorn (Everything But The Girl). You know what I’m talking about: a manner that is seductive, not so much for its sultriness and smokiness, but for its ethereal and otherworldly nature.
Continue reading Opus Zine Reviews Long Way From Home
