Jason Moore has posted a review of the original 1992 Projekt Records release of Idylls to his Opus Zine. The following is just an excerpt. Read the full review on the zine’s website.
Let’s get the obvious out of way: the Cocteau Twins are Idylls’ most obvious point of reference, particularly Treasure and Victorialand. Ryan Lum’s guitars create the same sort of jawdroppingly gorgeous soundscapes as those produced by Robin Guthrie, Suzanne Perry’s gorgeous voice echoes Elizabeth Fraser’s gossamery glossolalia, and beneath it all, there’s the cold, artificial thump of a drum machine (which serves only to highlight the music’s ethereal aspects).
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.
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.
Ariel wrote a a very kind review of ‘Idylls’ for the latest issue of Altered Mind. It reads:
With their two debut tracks on Projekt comp From Across This Gray Land #3, Love Spirals Downwards promoted a beautiful first album. They didn’t warn s that it would approach the sublime. The perfect pairing of Suzanne Perry’s ethereal siren vocal and Ryan Lum’s intricately crafted instrumentation is the ideal vehicle for LSD’s dreamlike music. The sound is soothing, uplifting, and energizing all at once, and is marked by both delicacy and force. The 13 songs, instead of merging into a trail of similar and overused patterns, are diverse. All this from a debut CD. I can’t wait to hear their next effort.
Love Spirals Downwards were featured in the French fanzine, Noising Therapy. Below is an English translation and the original pages:
We owe some pages of Noising Therapy to our friend, the formidable American label Project, which has presented us with two of its most beautiful artists: BLACK TAPE FOR A BLUE GIRL and LYCIA. For the record, a while ago, we had an interview with LOVE SPIRALS DOWNWARDS. Curiously, a good number of the fans and attentive listeners of Ryan of LSD have decided not to wait forever to discover this band, and you who read this, here is LOVE SPIRALS DOWNWARDS. Unfortunately, the post office strikes on the one hand, and Ryan’s exhausting LSD studies on the other, decided otherwise. As it’s never too late to do well, and because we consider it essential to make you discover this group, here is LOVE SPIRALS DOWNWARDS.
