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Review

Opus Zine Reviews Long Way From Home

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 →
Review

MusicTap Reviews Idylls & Ardor Reissue CDs

Matt Rowe of Music Tap posted a joint review of our two remastered reissue CDs released last month by Projekt.

From the early formative years of Love Spirals Downward[s] to their current incarnation, with name shortened to Lovespirals, the band has shape-shifted from a 4AD ethereal sound with thick, cottony soundscapes to complement the hypnotic, angelic vocals of Suzanne Perry to a more current smorgasbord of legendary influences such as blues and jazz, completed by the chameleonic voice of Anji Bee. The two versions of the same band have covered a lot of ground in their separate time-frames, both having added copiously to the band’s legacy. 

Continue reading MusicTap Reviews Idylls & Ardor Reissue CDs →
Audio, Interview

Lovespirals ‘Long Way From Home’ Feature Podcast

In this extended episode of the Chillin’ with Lovespirals podcast, Ryan and Anji play every song from their Long Way From Home as they discuss how the album was created. In this special behind-the-scenes podcast, the duo discuss their new album’s influences, song writing process, and production secrets, while giving you great peek into the album!

You can subscribe to Chillin’ with Lovespirals on just about any podcast app including Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Deezer, and JioSaavn. 

Continue reading Lovespirals ‘Long Way From Home’ Feature Podcast →
Band News, Review

Re:Gen Magazine Reviews Long Way From Home

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By Matthew Johnson

On their third album, Lovespirals shift away from overt electronica in favor of beautiful, understated folk and blues ballads.

If sophomore album Free and Easy saw Lovespirals’ sound at its biggest, Long Way from Home is the duo’s most intimate, forsaking house beats and jazz flourishes for understated slide guitar and acoustic strums. Ryan Lum’s production is more mature than ever before; unless you really listen for it, you won’t be able to tell that he plays and records all the instruments himself – maybe not even then – and the drums sound warm and clear, betraying no hint of sampler or sequencer. Instead, Lum lets his arrangements take center stage, with emotive guitar solos harmonizing with electric organ on the bluesy ballad “Once in a Blue Moon” and relaxed acoustic strums highlighting jazzy piano chords on “Nocturnal Daze.” Anji Bee’s vocals are beautifully languid, the sweetness swathed in melancholy on the plaintive “Caught in the Groove,” adorned by floating background harmonies on “Treading the Water,” and sensual yet dreary on the pair’s stark rendition of classic spiritual “Motherless Child.” Fans of the pair’s more overtly romantic material will appreciate unabashed love song “This Truth,” and there’s even a hint of the ethereal dreaminess of Lum’s previous project, Love Spirals Downwards, on the fuzzy overlapping guitar tones and meandering vocals of “Sundrenched” and “Lazy Love Days.”

It’s not an understatement to call Long Way from Home the duo’s most accomplished work up to date; as enjoyable as their previous explorations of laidback electronica and jazz fusion have been, this album captures Lum and Bee’s warm musical chemistry in a way that previous releases only hinted at.

View the original review at Re:Gen Magazine.

Band News

Music Tap Featured Artist for December

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Matt Rowe reviews Long Way From Home for Music Tap, 11/28/2007

The evolution of Lovespirals into the band that they are today has been a long road. From the band’s early years as Love Spirals Downwards — with a vocalist all-but-forgotten for Anji Bee’s lovely, dreamy, and expansive vocal pleasantries — to their current album, Lovespirals have always been a band of change. Their latest, the wonderfully titled Long Way From Home, is one of superior work and can easily rank as the band’s best work in either incarnation.

Still a part of the Dream-Pop sound that formed them, the Anji Bee years of Lovespirals have been an essential element for the band. With her ability to wrap around Ryan Lum’s musical explorations, Lovespirals is not afraid of trying on new clothes, framing them in gorgeous soft tones of various flavours. The album begins with a “career-best” blues song that accentuates the album’s direction. “Caught in the Groove” is a beautifully produced, dream-blues (if I may coin the phrase) song. Using a song as a metaphor for the deterioration of a relationship, this captivating tune is made all the more extraordinary by Lum’s blues guitar.

That same bluesy guitar shows up in “Once in a Blue Moon, and “Nocturnal Daze.” Ryan Lum’s guitar leads have a distinct ’70s feel throughout the album. Some songs recall the past musical history of the band. “Sundrenched” lends itself to the stream of that past. The album closes with the excellent musically and lyrically sex-soaked “Lazy Love Days.”

The needle may be “caught in the groove” but, for me, that’s a good thing where this album is concerned.

View the original post at MusicTap.net

Band News

Idylls Remastered Reissue #1 on Projekt.com!

The Projekt.com Top 10 currently lists the brand new Love Spirals Downwards – Idylls Remastered Reissue at the #1 spot, followed closely by Love Spirals Downwards – Ardor Remastered Reissue at #3. Trailing slightly behind is the new Lovespirals – Long Way From Home (which was actually released by Chillcuts, not Projekt) at the #8 position and Lovespirals – Windblown Kiss — which Projekt released back in 2002 — at #9. With the #5, #6, and #10 albums being comps that include tracks by Love Spirals Downwards and Lovespirals, as well, I guess you could say that I’m pretty much dominating the Projekt charts this week!

Band News

Idylls Remastered Reissue on iTunes now!

You can now purchase the brand new Idylls [Remastered Reissue] on iTunes. This 2007 version of Love Spirals Downwards’ classic 1992 debut album includes 3 bonus tracks; their first ever recorded song, a live acoustic recording, and an extended version of a song from an out-of-print compilation CD. 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 photographs for crystal clear images, as well. Watch for the Ardor [Remastered Reissue] on iTunes soon! This is a cooperative release between Projekt Records and Chillcuts Digital.

Interview

Re:Gen Magazine Interview Lovespirals

The Golden Age of Chill by Re:Gen Magazine Assistant Editor, Matthew Johnson

For a band so enmeshed in ’70s-era recording aesthetics, Lovespirals’ Anji Bee and Ryan Lum are undeniably on the cutting edge of modern technology. Early adopters of podcasting technology, the pair are aligned with Adam Curry’s PodShow network as well as the nascent podsafe movement. They also recently made their virtual reality debut with a live show in the Second Life online community, and are eager about the Internet’s role in the music industry’s uncertain new era. Get them talking about the music itself, though, and it’s all about the warm sounds of ’70s records. Bee and Lum’s newest release, Long Way from Home, largely abandons the house and downtempo electronic currents of previous releases Windblown Kiss and Free and Easy — not to mention the ambient drum ‘n’ bass predilections Lum explored with his previous project, top-selling Projekt act Love Spirals Downwards — in favor of a more acoustic approach. If the technology is less overt, however, it’s no less an integral part of Lovespirals’ music. As Lum and Bee explain to ReGen, it takes a lot of technique to produce an album on ProTools that sounds like it was recorded in the days of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Lum also tells us about revisiting his early work by remastering new editions of Love Spirals Downwards’ first two albums, Idylls and Ardor, and Bee talks about keeping things real in the age of Auto-Tune.

Let’s start by talking about your new album, Long Way from Home. The electronic elements are a lot more understated than on Free and Easy. Was there a conscious decision to step away from electronica to focus on more traditional instruments?

Continue reading Re:Gen Magazine Interview Lovespirals →
Band News

Idylls and Ardor remastered reissues out now!

At long last, the remastered reissues of Loves Spirals Downwards’ groundbreaking first two records, Idylls and Ardor, have been released. You can purchase them now at CD Baby (Idylls, Ardor), Projekt’s webstore, and at Lovespirals’ Webstore. All of these online stores are great places to get the cds, but lovespirals.com is the only place where you can also get your cd personally autographed by Ryan of Love Spirals Downwards. To learn and hear more about these remastered reissues, go to our releases page.

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