Category Archives: Band News

Band News

Ever & Sideways Forest news

Ever, our new full length CD, still looks right on track for being released on the week of September 15, 1996. What that boils down to is you won’t see it in stores until October, but you will be able order it direct from Projekt that week. It’s hard for me to describe what it sounds like, but everyone at the label seems to agree that Ever is different than our previous albums. Sideways Forest, our new CD-single, has been out for about a month now. The label tells me that the trip-hoppy “Quantum Remix” of “Sideways Forest” (which is only on the CD-single) has been getting a bit more radio and club play than normal.

We have no upcoming shows planned and it seems that we are done playing live for the year. If this changes, I’ll mention it here. We are planning on doing more shows next year.

Band News

Sideways Forest Maxi-Single Out

Our new maxi-single is out now on Projekt Records!

After two albums of layered, interwoven textures evoking warm, dreamlike states of consciousness, Love Spirals Downwards emerge with a distillation of their sumptuous sound on their new single ‘Sideways Forest’.  Triggered by the group’s experiences of performing live with a more stripped down, acoustic set, on “Sideways Forest” we hear the intrinsic beauty of simple, flowing guitar melody and a lone, singular voice, beckoning listeners to embellish the sound in their own minds.  The “Quantum Remix” of the title track deconstructs these acoustic elements and rebuilds from the song’s foundation, adding sampled and electronic patterns, morphing them into a euphoric journey into trip-ambience.  The disc concludes with the instrumental “Amarillo,” echoing themes hinted at in “Sideways Forest,” while uniting the group’s acoustic elements and free flowing, open atmospherics.

The single release of ‘Sideways Forest’ will be followed by Love Spirals Downwards third full length release, ‘Ever,’ scheduled for September 15, 1996.  The band will perform selected live dates in support of ‘Ever’ during the winter and spring of 1997.

— Projekt Records
Band News

Recent news

Our CD-single, Sideways Forest, will be released on August 1, 1996, and the new full-length album will follow on September 15.

Sean from Eden will be staying with us here for the next two weeks and we will be collaborating together in our studio to see what happens (maybe there’ll be an EP sometime in the future?). Plus, I think he will really dig Disneyland and seeing Jim Morrison’s house in Venice Beach. I would also like to say thanks to everyone who said hello to us at the recent Projekt Fest in Chicago.

And, check the Projekt News for more info on our two upcoming shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Band News

Orkus Features Love Spirals Downwards

Love Spirals Downwards: Island at Daybreak

By Stefan Walther

The American duo Love Spirals Downwards could probably be described as co-founders of “Heavenly Voices Music” since their debut album Idylls in 1992. Ryan Lum, who is responsible for the entire instrumentation, creates—together with singer Suzanne Perry—a breathtaking musical experience, which, through its depth and atmosphere, can certainly be described as a sonorous, dark-melancholic, dreamy sound-work.

With the release of Ardor in the year ’94, Love Spirals Downwards were able to place yet another crown on their debut, as the songs on the album were a tick more ethereal, polished, and mature. When the third longplayer Ever was released at the beginning of this year [1996], a kind of zenith seems to have been reached in the band’s work. It still sounds like Love Spirals Downwards, still bears the signature of Ryan and Suzanne, but is by far the most varied work the two Americans have brought to light since their existence (founded in 1991).

Often LSD were compared to better-known bands like Slowdive and Cocteau Twins. Such comparisons usually limp, often on both legs [German idiom: they don’t hold up well]. But here, with these comparisons, Ryan’s interest in exactly these bands seems to apply. Also regarding the mood and the music, there are not worlds [of difference] between Slowdive and LSD—if one disregards LSD’s music, which is built predominantly on acoustic guitars and is somewhat more reserved.

But what do LSD want to give the listeners of their records along the way? Ryan completely rejects pinning down the lyrics to a specific theme. He likes it very much when the most varied meanings are interpreted into his music and lyrics. He even goes so far as to say that there is no deeper meaning behind the lyrics, that it is merely “nonsensical poetry” [blödsinnige Dichterei], which, however, is intended to fulfill the purpose of reinforcing the moods of the individual songs.

It remains to be seen how Love Spirals Downwards will develop on their further “life path,” and whether they manage to maintain the consistently good reviews of the last album. We shall see…

Band News

Chicago Tribune ProjektFest Piece

Cool. The Chicago Tribune published a story promoting the upcoming Projekt Festival happening at the Vic Theatre.

Psst! Projekt label’s going live with it’s dark sound

by Achy Obejas for “After Hours”

Step aside, Ajax and Minty Fresh. Make some room.

This Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Chicago experiences “From Across this Gray Land,” the first festival celebrating artists on the Projekt label.

The what?

It seems that while our town has been aggressively slamming and bumping to a cavalcade of local label bands at Lounge Ax and the Double Door, Sam Rosenthal and his Projekt artists quietly stole into town and set up shop.

And quietly is the operative word here.

Projekt artists — including Rosenthal’s group, Black Tape for a Blue Girl — are deeply immersed in something that could only be called dark music: ambient, gothic and ethereal. It’s lush, dense and often gloomy. Unlike most trendy ambient music, Projekt’s ambient records feature vocals; there is virtually nothing to dance to; it swirls and envelopes with an unabashed romanticism. Compared with most of the noise in town, Projekt practically whispers.

Rosenthal, 30, started Projekt back in 1983 but it didn’t get moving until three years later, when he moved to California from his native Ft. Lauderdale. Feeling alienated and depressed, he recorded “The Rope,” which he describes as “a combo of techno pop and ambient, somewhere between Gary Neuman and Eno.”

“The Rope” was promptly strangled by the critics, although Rosenthal developed a small core of followers. “At the time, it really upset me,” he confesses. “Now I just kind of laugh. Now I realize a lot of pseudo-intellectual rock critics don’t want to deal with what they think is sappy romantic crap.”

So Rosenthal persevered: With Black Tape for a Blue Girl, he released “Mesmerized by the Sirens” in 1987, “Ashes in the Brittle Air” in 1989, “Chaos of Desire” in 1993, “This Lush Garden Within” in 1994; this year has produced “Remnants of a Deeper Purity.”

But is anyone buying this except Rosenthal and his mother?

Rosenthal laughs again. “We sell all around the world,” he explains. “We sell in Asia and Europe. We’re in Borders.”

Projekt’s best-selling band, Love Spirals Downward, sells about 10,000 CDs per release. Black Tape for a Blue Girl sells about 9,000. Located near Chinatown, Projekt is Rosenthal’s full-time job and obsession. The label employs eight people.

The Projekt Festival, the first of its kind for the label, will feature a buffet of bands, but Rosenthal’s honest about how scary it is for him.

“We’ve got fans coming from Hong Kong and England,” he says. “It just seemed like a good thing to do, to meet the people who like the music. But Black Tape has been a studio band for 10 years. It’s never been possible to play live — so we’ve never done it before.”

Interview

Interview in Shadows of Michelangelo Zine

This Florida-based Heavy Metal ‘zine reached out for an interview, which was a fun change of pace. The following is a transcript:

Love Spirals Downwards. You may not be familiar with this name. Sure, it’s not a HM band. It’s from another underground genre, Ambient. LSD is organized by just two persons: Ryan & Suzanne. He basically does all the instructions in this music, and she does the haunting ethereal vocals. This is the topnotch atmospheric music I really recommend to listen to. Just buy and check all their 3 albums out. They are the high quality music. Well, this interview will more interest you.

SOM: Are you guys vegetarians? Do you still have a thing with Subway or Taco Bell?

Ryan: I prefer Taco bell, though. I used to be a vegetarian. But after living with Suzanne, it’s hard to not eat meat, so I’ll eat it. I don’t feel too bad about it though, because humans are basically scavengers. We are both omnivores and carnivores, so in nature humans have eaten whatever was there, meat or vegetable, to stay alive. But, I still don’t eat much meat. You could call me a bad vegetarian. Taco Bell is still as my favorite fast food.

SOM: Well, if you categorize yourselves as Gothic, it’s not a common form of Goth today, don’t you think? I mean, Goth is sometimes much stronger than emotional side of it. Please tell us how Gothic (musically, and else) you are.

Ryan: I’m about as gothic as Snoop Doggy Dogg. I’ve never categorized myself, nor my art, as gothic. I really don’t understand where people get this idea that we are gothic. All one needs is to listen to our music, or take a look at us, and it’s quite obvious that we have nothing to do with that whole thing. I think it’s because Projekt has a lot of Goths that like their releases, so we mistakenly get categorized as Gothic because some Gothic people buy our music. But that’s unfair and not accurate because many kinds of people buy our music. When we play shows, most often the people I meet who are our fans are just more regular sort of people, like ourselves. I think our music falls into this area of Ambient music that borders a little with acoustic folk, pop, and more dancey groovy stuff.

Shadows of Michelangelo Zine
Shadows of Michelangelo Zine
Continue reading Interview in Shadows of Michelangelo Zine →
Band News

Upcoming release and performance

This is Ryan again with a little update of what’s going on with us. Our first new music to be released in over a year and a half will be the cd-single Sideways Forest. It is a three songs disc: “Sideways Forest” (the mix that will be on our new album), a trippy groovy remix/re-worked mix of “Sideways Forest” and “Amarillo” — which will not be on the new album. This is set to come out in late June or early July. Our new full length album (still not titled) will follow in September.

We are looking forward to our next live performance at the Projekt Festival at which we’ll be playing two or three new songs in our still all-acoustic set. This will be our first show in Chicago, which was skipped between our West Coast and East Coast tours last year. It should be a lot of fun and please come see us (along with Lycia, lovesliescrushing, and Thanatos on our night) if you are from the area, since we have no plans to be playing there again anytime soon.

Also, if anybody read the Projekt news on the Projekt web, Sam commented on how he thought I wanted to move to Mexico City, as a few people have asked me about. No, I do not want to move there (and no, we were not treated like big rock stars as Sam described). I did say to him that I would like to make more visits there, in the spirit of my Beat heroes like Kerouac, which I plan to do this summer after the Chicago show for a few weeks and visit friends and eat non-stop.

Band News

Hello!

Hello. This is Ryan of Love Spirals Downwards. This is the first band info message from us on our webpage. I plan to update this every 2 or 3 months, or whenever there’s new information.

We’ve had lots of things happening with us lately including a show in Mexico City at the very beautiful Museo Universitario del Chopo on February 29. We spent a wonderful week in Mexico making many new friends and seeing some truly fantastic sights such as the pyramids at Teotihuacan (we climbed to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun), as well as eating some of the best food in our lives.

We haven’t even begun to think about new tours yet but some shows may happen later this year. One upcoming scheduled performance is the Projekt Festival in Chicago. It is a two-evening event that will include nearly all of Projekt’s current recording line-up. We will supposedly be closing the first night on June 25. For more information on this call the Projekt info-line at (312) 491-0108.

Review

The First Pain to Linger Review

Audio Drudge # 7, Issue 7

With this 34-minute-maxi-CD and 92-page book, Sam Rosenthal simultaneously reveals the roots of Black Tape for A Blue Girl’s last album This Lush Garden Within, and brings this period of his art to a close. The book tells the story of how Sam opened himself to loving Susan, who inspired This Lush Garden Within. Consisting of seven tracks, two previously unreleased and five from various compilations, the disc is a nice introduction for those unfamiliar with BTFBG, and a must for die-hard fans. All the tracks occupy the warm ethereal ambient realm Projekt has almost single-handedly defined; synth washes and gently strummed guitars combine with floating female vocals to produce a sensation of being suspended in a nurturing ocean of sound. I was especially charmed by the shiny, ringing wine-glass like synth and guitar of “the glass is shattered,” in whose somberly contemplative tone I saw portrayed a man sitting alone at a kitchen table bathed in afternoon sunlight, staring at a broken glass occupying an empty place at the table, wondering: “the glass is shattered / is that what makes it beautiful?” The ebbing and flowing guitar (guested by Ryan Lum of Love Spirals Downwards) and dancing lights in fog evoked by the keyboards made “overwhelmed, beneath me” a standout track as well. And the menacing synth foundations of the closing, unnamed track support glittering undersea castles of sound, which build, shimmer, then swirl away in the dark currents. Although I enjoyed almost all of the tracks, I found the lack of continuity between them disturbing, even though I knew this was a compilation LP and I shouldn’t expect continuity. Still, this is a good place to start for those curious about BTFBG, and a welcome appetizer for their next full length album, due out in May.

Interview

Mean Streets Vol. 8, #4 (1996) [Scan, Transcript & Audio]

Article by Ned Raggett

For Ryan Lum, instrumentalist for the L.A. based duo, Love Spirals Downwards, sticking to just one means of musical expression is not an option.

“I go between making this pure acoustic music and then going into this analog synthesizer, drum machine sound, tweaking knobs and stuff — just to keep things fun! If I did the same thing for a while, I’d get burnt out!”

Combined with the truly beautiful vocals of Suzanne Perry, Lum’s work in Love Spirals Downwards is a lush, wondrous experience. The band’s third album, Ever, has just been released on Projekt, and clearly demonstrates that Lum and Perry have moved from being simply fine disciples of the Cocteau Twins school of performance to becoming distinctly intriguing artists in their own right.

For Lum, the question of influence is a tricky one, reflecting the tension between inspiration and the need to be one’s own person.

“It’s hard to say which bands listen to are my influences and which are not. I guess everything I listen to somehow gets mixed up in what I do. That’s a tough question, because I don’t know what I’m trying to get away from, or what I’m trying to be like.”

Continue reading Mean Streets Vol. 8, #4 (1996) [Scan, Transcript & Audio] →