Category Archives: Review

Review

Pop Matters Reviews Idylls & Ardor Reissues

A 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.

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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. 

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Band News, Review

Re:Gen Magazine Reviews Long Way From Home

long_way_200

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, Review

Opus Zine Reviews Blisscent 1 CD

Opus Zine has reviewed the Blisscent 1 compilation CD on their website. I was just going to post the bit about Lovespirals’ track, “He Calls Me,” however it only make sense in the context of the commentary preceding:

Alcian Blue’s track just feels a bit clumsy. The recording quality feels lacking, resulting in the whole song sounding rather flat. Unlike Skywave, where the lo-fi recording actually adds to the over noise assault, here it just makes what might otherwise be a decent song rather plodding.

However, there are no such complaints with Lovespirals’ “He Calls Me.” Formerly know as Love Spirals Downwards, Lovespirals features a new vocalist and a slightly different direction. Gone are drum and bliss textures of Flux, instead hinting back the group’s earlier releases, such as Ardor. Spanish-tinged acoustic guitar work and light drums provide the perfect setting for Anji’s beautiful vocals. Even more interestingly, the lyrics point at the song’s more spiritual origins: “His voice is like a song/I hear the melodies/So I learn them, write them down/So I can play them/Let them understand you are in everything we do/Show them your glory.”

— Jason Moore, Opus Zine
Band News, Review

Gothic Paradise Reviews Windblown Kiss

Website and radio station, Gothic Paradise, announced in their latest newsletter: “Added a review and information on the debut album from the newly formed Lovespirals, featuring the almost legendary, multi-talented Ryan Lum of Love Spirals Downwards fame. Combined with Anji Bee’s musical talents and beautiful voice, they’ve managed to create a very captivating sound. Their style reflects only vaguely Ryan’s previous work as Love Spirals Downwards and takes on a more Jazzier tone with touches of Flamenco, Folk and other genres. I like to compare them to the latest release from The Cranes — dreamy and experimental — and Julee Cruise — Ethereal and Jazzy. Great stuff and one of the latest releases on Projekt Records!“

Lovespirals Windblown Kiss Projekt (2002)

I’ve been waiting for this release for a long time and it’s been well worth the wait. I, like other fans of Love Spirals Downwards wasn’t sure of what to expect with this release. I had heard a little bit about it and had a listen of “Dejame” early on before the release. Also being a fan of Julee Cruise and hearing that similarity, I knew I was going to enjoy this album.

Combining so many instruments, different guitars, various styles including Flamenco, Jazz and a bit of Ethereal, everything comes together almost perfectly. The beginning track “Oh so long” really sets the somewhat melancholic yet jazzy mood for the album. The follow-up track “Dejame” is my favorite from this work of art. The Spanish lyrics are pensive and Anji’s vocals are beautiful and thought-provoking. There are some upbeat tracks that have an overall happy mood to them such as “He Calls Me”. “Windblown Kiss” is probably the track that can most closely be compared to the more Gothic Ethereal style with the acoustic elements and the overall dreamy feeling you get while listening to it, another favorite of mine.

Some other great points about this album are the additions of saxophone by Doron Orenstein. Also, the addition of male vocals by Sean Bowley on several tracks. There are other contributions by these artists and others with the entire production, including mastering by Robert Rich. Such a combination of musical styles and instruments along with the talents of this duo is just outright innovative and enjoyable. I think a wide audience will really enjoy this album. I give it a 4 1/2 out of 5 rating, not quite perfect, more for my own tastes than for any flaws in the music.

— Jacob Bogedahl

See the Gothic Paradise band bio for Lovespirals at: http://www.gothicparadise.com/lovespirals.htm 

Also be sure to check out Gothic Paradise’s Ethereal channel radio programming!

Band News, Review

High Bias Reviews Windblown Kiss

Another review of our new album came online.

An outgrowth of the Gothic dreampop band, Love Spirals Downwards, Lovespirals cast aside much of the previous incarnation’s psychedelic gloom while retaining its romantic angst. The airy arrangements and acoustic guitars put a new spin on the kind of emotional claustrophobia at which LSD was so adept.

“And it’s oh so long to wait/I lack the patience/Give me strength” Bee sighs in “Oh So Long” as she waits to be reunited with her lover; “Swollen Sea” and “I Can’t See You” also look for beauty in the pain of lost love. But Bee and Lum don’t forget joy: “Our Nights,” “He Calls Me” (which adds an overt spiritual dimension to the proceedings) and the title tune celebrate love instead of dreading it.

Interestingly, Lum and Bee invite guitarist/songwriter Sean Bowley from Eden to contribute vocals and lyrics to two cuts; the results are strong Gothic folk/pop songs, but they don’t fit with the rest of the record. Still, those songs don’t detract from an otherwise consistently beautiful treatise on romantic expression.

For fans of: the Cardigans, Cousteau, Everything But the Girl

— Michael Toland, High Bias

Get your copy of Lovespirals’ ‘Windblown Kiss’ CD from Projekt.com today!

Review

AV Club Reviews Ever

The Onion’s AV Club has posted a fairly positive review of Love Spirals Downwards’ 1996 album, Ever, both in their newspaper and on their website:

The Onion V 30, #18:

In the past 10 years, countless shoegazing dream-pop bands have come and gone, leaving behind a large but largely forgotten body of lush, languorous work. If that ethereal little subgenre is dead, Love Spirals Downwards plays “post-shoegazer” music, co-opting the crisply pretty guitar lines and billowy female vocals—and stripping away the layers of cloudiness that typify the work of bands like Slowdive and pre-1995 Lush. Ever, Love Spirals Downwards’ third album, plays through like one long, meandering voice, albeit one that’s sometimes fed through filters or accompanied by acoustic guitars and the occasional electronic noise. Singer Suzanne Perry has one of those high, hypnotic voices that swoop and soar dramatically, and it’s awfully pretty to listen to. It’s just too bad that a substantial portion of Ever is devoted to ambient noodling rather than simple, unpretentious voice-and-guitar tracks like “El Pedregal” and “Lieberflusse.” Still, it’s a nice, airy surprise, recalling many of the best things about a lot of dead-and-gone bands.

—Stephen Thompson, AV Club

Review

MusicTAP Reviews Excelsis 3 ~ A Prelude

Another review has come in for the new holiday Projekt comp. Matt Rowe of MusicTap gives the Maxi CD a 4 out of 5 star rating and a glowing review which reads, in part:

“The Excelsis collection issued by Projekt are comprised of some of the most mystically enchanting songs that refer to the Christmas holidays. With ghostly reverence that is ethereally communicated to us by the artists that interpret the selections, we are taken on a journey of such aching perfection that we can only melt into the songs, become one with them. With the release of Excelsis 3 ~ A Prelude, Projekt have provided us with yet another great set of beautifully rendered Christmas tunes. Lovespirals gives us “Aspen Glow”, a song borrowed from John Denver and sweetly sung in as good a version as you’ll ever hear by the beautiful Anji Bee, who’s voice is as charming as a winter scene that you become lost in. Ryan and Anji’s respect for the season is deeply felt. This track has become one of my favorite seasonal songs.”

Rowe’s view on the holiday season could honestly not be in more stark contrast to the fellow from Chain D.L.K., almost comically so. But its nice to know that both people who hate and revere Christmas adore the Excelsis compilation series:

“Christmas is a wonderful time that delineates the essence of everything pure and good. It is a mystery that can never be contained nor revealed and yet, is felt as a pain of something never grasped. The fundamental nature of it is in the beauty of the songs on this disc but vanishes as soon as you take the disc out of the player. Regardless, they leave a resonant peace that you can count as ‘value added’. Cheers to Projekt for this collection and the sets that preceded it. My Christmas wish is that Projekt would carry on with this series and continue to provide us with the intrinsic magnificence that is Christmas.” – Matt Rowe

Be sure to order your copy of this holiday themed Maxi CD from Projekt!

Review

Chain D.L.K. Reviews Excelsis 3 ~ A Prelude

A cheeky review has been posted on gothic industrial site, Chain D.L.K. written by Shaun Hamilton. It reads, in part:

“Ahhhhh, X-Mas…. The smell of pinecones roasting on the fire — or something like that. Or was it elves? Hell, toss them in there too! I hate X-Mas, and I’m not a cheery one to have around the house at that time of year, but this CD is something good to come out of it and the series in general. Projekt has always been music made for winter time and it shows why this is my choice music to listen to on a nice winter day inside. Lovespirals kicks in with their special brand of babymaking music. I can’t help it, everything this bands sings and plays sounds so kinky and sensual, but still so classy! And it is the first time I’ve heard someone sounding dead on like Liz Frazier without being a knockoff.”

If you’re intrigued, be sure to grab a copy of this holiday themed Maxi CD from Projekt!