When Ryan Lum released Flux in 1998, it signaled a bold transformation from ethereal dream pop to electronically-driven atmospheric music, blending breakbeats, downtempo, and drum & bass. But even as the album was being promoted, Lum was already moving forward—his DJ career was in full swing, and he had begun producing music specifically for his sets with a renewed focus on live collaboration.
In early 1999, he hinted at his next phase in Outburn Issue 8:
“It’s just a big uncharted future out there. I can go anywhere… Even when I started making Flux, I just started making music with no particular intention of it being an album. I wanted to make music for the sake of music. I started making new songs a couple weeks ago… I got boatloads of new gear! I finally got it all going. I’m gonna have some jazz buddies come over tomorrow to lay down some stuff, too, so who knows what it will be!”
Enter Anji Bee: The Partner-in-Crime
While Ryan was recalibrating his studio, a new creative catalyst entered the fold. Anji Bee was already a fixture in the Southern California underground, arriving with a DIY pedigree that stretched back to the mid-1980s. She had spent her youth navigating the hardcore punk scene as the creator of the fanzine Positive Influence, a project that followed her first foray into self-publishing: a junior high Duran Duran zine called Duranies Unite.
Bee’s influence was most visible at KUCI 88.9 FM in Irvine, where she served as both the Experimental Music Director and the station’s head Music Director. In addition to hosting multiple programs—including the experimental The All Purpose Nuclear Bedtime Story with Justin Johnson—she edited and designed the station’s program guide, contributing reviews and interviews, as well.
Though they had circled the same orbit for years—meeting at His Name Is Alive and Lycia shows and eating Trader Joe’s snacks at a Projekt Barbecue—their creative partnership was sparked through the airwaves. On March 8, 1998, Bee and Johnson conducted a phone-in interview with Lum to discuss the upcoming ProjektFest LA. In her cheeky intro to the transcript, Bee noted:
“As Ryan lives within walking distance of the venue, it makes for the perfect choice for this chill, go-with-the-flow musician, who apparently was reluctant to leave his neighborhood as he opted to phone-in his interview rather than drive over…”
The connection deepened on December 6, 1998, when Lum came to the station for an in-studio interview about Flux. As Bee recalled in 2013, Lum had specifically waited for her to return from a trip to Boston to conduct the interview:
“I was like, ‘Oh, you don’t need me there… You could just do that with my co-host.’ He’s all, ‘No, no, I’m going to wait until you get back. I want to do the interview with you.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, really? Ryan wants to do the interview with me, huh?'”
After the interview, the two continued to correspond. When Bee eventually visited Lum’s apartment to hear new demos, the musical chemistry was instant. Lum explained that his current vocalist wasn’t connecting with the electronica and drum ‘n’ bass sounds he was exploring. “I immediately started thinking of lyrics,” Bee recalled. “And so we kept contacting each other.”
By 1999, the partnership was official. As Sean Flinn noted for RadioSpy, Bee was Ryan’s self-described “partner-in-crime,” handling everything from vocals and album art to the “day-to-day work on the Love Spirals Downwards website—answering fan mail, fulfilling orders from their ‘e-store’ and administrating their forums.” Flinn observed that this partnership was central to Lum’s “consistent willingness to embrace change,” noting that while the shift in musical style was apparent, the “emergence of the digital music marketplace” was running close on its heels.
Ryan Lum’s DJ Career: Spinning Ethereal Drum & Bass
Throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s, Lum performed as DJ — rather than a band — at various events across California, spinning atmospheric drum & bass, jazz-step, and downtempo—genres that directly influenced Ecstatic EP. During the December 1998 KUCI conversation, Lum discussed his foray into deejaying as a promotional tool—an interview that Bee would later submit, along with her own photography of Lum behind the decks, to create a four-page feature for the September 1999 issue of Losing Today:
“I’ve always wanted to get my own turntables. The DJ stuff is fun. And what’s cool about it is that it’s promoting my record, too. So, it’s cool. You know? It brings out fans, and people who like our music. Last time, when I did it out at Nightnoise a few weeks ago, people were e-mailing me afterwards, going, “What did you play?” They had never heard the stuff I was playing before and they were into it.”
During this time, Lum became a fixture in the West Coast drum & bass scene, DJing alongside other DJ and musical artists while subtly introducing the ethereal textures that defined Love Spirals Downwards into his sets.
Notable DJ Appearances:
- 1/15/1999 at Sterile Costa Mesa, CA
- 1/30/1999 at La Belle Epoque at The Top, San Francisco, CA
- 2/12/1999 at Virgin Megastore, Hollywood, CA
- 4/23/1999 at Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA (Dewdrops’ Splashed With Many A Speck CD Release Party)
- 5/21/1999 at Sterile, Santa Ana, CA (opening for Halou and Sweet Trip)
- 6/20/1999 at Virgin Megastore, Hollywood, CA (opening for Black Tape for a Blue Girl)
- 7/5/1999 at La Belle Epoque at Sugar, Santa Monica, CA
- 1/1/2000 B-Sides Y2K Party at Ice Castles, Big Bear, CA
- 5/13/2000 at La Belle Epoque at The Top, San Francisco, CA
Lum’s growing DJ profile also led to terrestrial radio appearances, including guest mixes on KUCI 88.9 FM’s Riders of the Plastic Groove, Space Disco for Fish Tacos and The All Purpose Nuclear Bedtime Story, as well as a online sets for RadioSpy and Love Cat House.
Digital Transition: From Vinyl Dubplates to Online Distribution
The birth of the Ecstatic EP was a direct result of this immersion. Because Lum was crafting tracks specifically for mixing, he initially pressed them to acetate dubplates to bridge the gap between his studio and the turntables. However, by the early 2000s the duo were fully embracing the internet as a way to distribute music. With MP3.com, Last.FM, BeSonic, and other emerging digital platforms, artists could bypass traditional record labels and reach global audiences.
Bee recalled this shift in a 2002 interview with The Women of MP3.com:
“I made those tracks available online through MP3.com and folks started contacting us to include stuff on compilations, so by now all of them have been released somewhere or other, which is really cool. But I digress… It’s tremendously hard to explain exactly where or how things changed between Love Spirals Downwards and Lovespirals, because it was all just a natural progression.”
During this transitional period, the duo still lacked an official name. As Bee noted in Stratosphere Fanzine:
“We thought about including [our first two songs] on Temporal, but by that time we were already starting to refer to ourselves as Lovespirals because we both preferred the shorter look and sweeter sound of it.”
This “natural progression” was evident in their remix of Claire Voyant’s “Bittersweet” released on Time Again: A Collection of Remixes by Accession Records in 2000 and Metropolis Records in 2001. Despite the radical shift toward jazz-inflected drum & bass, the track was still credited to Love Spirals Downwards. It wasn’t until the release of the Ecstatic EP that Lovespirals became the definitive name.
Track-by-Track: The Sound of Ecstatic EP
“Ecstatic” – A Club-Ready, Hypnotic Jazz-Step Journey
The title track was the first track Lum and Bee completed together — sometime in mid-1999 — showcasing a dreamlike fusion of breakbeats, deep bass, and ethereal textures.
- Chopped “Amen break” rhythms propel the track forward, giving it a kinetic, jazz-step feel.
- Anji Bee’s breathy, wordless vocalizations (“ooh ah” and “ooh ah ah ah”) function as both melody and atmosphere, reminiscent of LTJ Bukem’s Good Looking Records sound.
- Doron Orenstein’s saxophone weaves through the mix, adding a smoky, late-night ambiance.
- Reverb-soaked guitar swells recall the textures of Flux, but within a faster, club-driven format.
This track quickly became a staple in Lum’s DJ sets, later appearing on compilations like:
- Chillout Lounge Vol. 2 (2001)
- Cool Terrasse (2002)
“Ecstatic” was the duo’s first track uploaded when the duo launched their first mp3.com page in July 2000.
“Hand in Hand” – Soulful Romance Meets Drum & Bass
One of the most lyrically-driven pieces on Ecstatic EP, this song blends:
- Lush, rolling breakbeats with deep atmospheric synth washes
- Smooth, electric guitar tones, reinforcing the duo’s signature ethereal quality
- Jazzy saxophone samples of Orenstein
- Bee’s warm, intimate vocal delivery, which feels more direct and personal than her wordless coos on “Ecstatic”
The lyrics:
Here we are
Face to face
Heart to heart
Hand in hand
This track perfectly bridges drum & bass with traditional songwriting, making it a standout for chillout and downtempo DJ sets. It was featured on:
- Chill Out Lounge Vol. 2 (2001)
- Mondisk: A Celebration of 13 Years (2002)
- Music for Active Yoga Vol 1 (2003)
- The Chill Lounge: 26 Chilled Euro Tracks (2006)
The song made its radio debut on September 9, 1999. Bee premiered the track during her KUCI 88.9 FM show, where the official playlist listed it as “Love Spirals Downwards — Hand in Hand (unreleased track).” The setlist that night was a sonic map of the duo’s headspace, placing the new Jazz-Step experiment in direct conversation with both their dream pop roots and their jazz influences:
- John Coltrane “Up “Gainst the Wall”
- Miles Davis “X-Rated (Doc Scott Remix)”
- Lamb “B Line” Fear of Fours (Fontana)
- Spacetime Continuum “Future Life (12″ remix)”
- Love Spirals Downwards “Hand in Hand” (unreleased track)
- Cocteau Twins “Know Who You Are at Every Age” Four Calander Cafe
- His Name is Alive “Blue Moon” Stay Sweet (4AD)
- Faith and Disease “marie Don’t Sleep in Your Makeup” Insularia (Ivy)
This eclectic set captured the exact moment the band’s DNA was rewriting itself—shifting from the ethereal “darkwave” scene toward a more rhythm-driven, urbane future, with jazz leanings.
In an August 2000 post to the band’s official website, Lum wrote:
“We just added another unreleased new track, called “Hand in Hand,” to our mp3.com page. This is the flip side of the “Ecstatic” dubplate that I’ve been including in my recent DJ sets. Once again, it features the sax of Doron and vocals of Anji, and is even more jazzy than “Ecstatic.” If you enjoyed “Misunderstood,” from Temporal, you’re bound to dig this track, too!”
For Lovespirals 2005 album, Free and Easy, the duo completely reworked “Hand In Hand” utilizing all of Bee’s original lyrics to create a poppier vocal drum ‘n bass version of the song.
“Beatitude” – Downtempo and Jazz-Step Collide
Originally one of the earliest songs Lum recorded post-Flux, “Beatitude” leans heavily into:
- Funky bassline
- Extended jazzy saxophone solos by Orenstein
- Soulful Rhodes piano by Gabriel D. Vine, Orenstein’s musical partner
- Glitchy, syncopated drum programming
- Rich, ambient guitar work, reminiscent of the Cocteau Twins’ more experimental moments
This track appeared on:
- Chillout in the City (2001)
- Music for Active Yoga Vol 1 (2003)
“Spanning Time” – Freeform Jazz-Inflected Electronica
This sprawling, nine-minute instrumental is the most improvisational track on the EP, featuring:
- Complex, evolving drum patterns
- Extended, soulful saxophone solos by Orenstein
- Bee’s jazz-style scatting (“da da da da da da da dowwww”), reminiscent of classic Ella Fitzgerald improvisations
Unlike the more tightly composed “Hand in Hand”, this track feels organic and ever-changing, capturing the late-night, smokey-club energy of London’s early drum & bass scene. The song’s name was a nod to the 1998 dark comedy, Buffalo 66 by Vincent Gallo, a favorite of both Lovespirals and Orenstein.
“We span time together as a couple. Because we’re a loving couple, spanning time. These photos are us, in love, spanning time.” — Billy Brown, Buffalo 66
Reception and Legacy: An Independent Digital Breakthrough
Though “Ecstatic” and “Hand in Hand” were initially only pressed to acetate for Lum’s DJ sets, their release on MP3.com and other emerging digital music platforms helped it find an international audience, proving to be ahead of its time.
Critics praised Ecstatic EP for its seamless fusion of jazz-step, dream pop, and atmospheric electronica, with comparisons to labels like Good Looking Records and Naked Music:
“Perhaps most notably known in the Goth community under the moniker Love Spirals Downwards, with their Cocteau Twins sound. Frontman Ryan Lum has changed their sound, and shortened the name to just Lovespirals. Together with vocalist Anji Bee, Lovespirals has embraced the sound of Drum n’ Bass and created a masterful relationship. Their release, Ecstatic EP, is a combination of sexy Jazz riffs, mellow breaks, and Bee’s seductive vocals. For those fans of Good Looking Records, Lovespirals could easily be found amongst their ranks in talent, and sound.”
— Hot Artist Spotlight, MP3.com
“Lovespirals provide tasty Illbient and Trip Hop-influenced grooves and give us a harbinger of Goth’s Next Big Thing.”
— Kevin, StarVox (“Best of 2001”)
However, not everyone embraced Lovespirals’ new sound. Projekt Records, which had released all of Love Spirals Downwards’ albums, was reluctant about the shift towards electronic music.
“When we sent Projekt the Ecstatic EP, their advice was to ‘cut out all the crazy drums’ and then they’d be into it. I was like, ‘This is breakbeat music, it’s BASED on the drums, man!’”
— Anji Bee, Jive Magazine (2002)
This wasn’t Projekt’s first rejection of Lum’s post-Flux work. In 1999, a drum ‘n’ bass reimagining of the holiday classic “The Little Drummer Boy”—featuring jazzy Rhodes piano by Gabriel D. Vine and vocals by Lum’s longtime collaborator, Suzanne Perry—was also turned down. The track had been created specifically for one of Projekt’s Excelsis holiday compilations, yet it was rejected outright, marking the final collaboration between the founding members of Love Spirals Downwards.
Without Projekt’s backing, Lum and Bee made a strategic pivot. Instead of pushing Projekt to release Ecstatic EP, they fulfilled their contractual obligation with a more organic, jazz-and folk-tinged dream pop album, Windblown Kiss (2002). Meanwhile, Ecstatic EP became the duo’s first independent release, debuting as a print-on-demand CD via MP3.com in late 2001 before expanding to other platforms — including the Podsafe Music Network, where Lovespirals reached a whole new listener base unaware of Lum’s former work.
Despite its unconventional release path, Ecstatic EP resonated with electronic and chillout audiences, leading to numerous film, television, and compilation placements, including:
- VH1’s The Love Lounge
- MTV’s Made
- E!’s Gastineau Girls
- Playboy’s Celebrity Centerfolds
A Visionary Release: Ecstatic and the Dawn of Digital Distribution
Lovespirals’ Ecstatic EP was reissued digitally with new artwork and high-bitrate audio, on Last.FM in 2004, followed by a 2006 digital release on the Podsafe Music Network, Bandcamp in 2010, and finally Spotify, Apple, and other major digital music streaming services in 2014.
By embracing digital distribution long before it became the industry standard, Ecstatic EP proved to be a forward-thinking release, bridging the worlds of ethereal, electronic, and jazz-infused downtempo music. Though Projekt may not have supported its direction, the EP found its audience organically, laying the foundation for Lovespirals’ independent career in the rapidly evolving digital music marketplace.
While Ecstatic EP showcased Lovespirals’ turn of the millennium exploration into jazz-step drum ‘n’ bass and downtempo sounds, it was a different sonic direction that would first capture the attention of the traditional Projekt Records fanbase. Their initial introduction to the duo came via the ethereal and jangly dream pop cover of “Aspenglow” on the Projekt compilation Excelsis 3: A Prelude. This track offered a clear indication of the direction Lovespirals would take on their first and only full-length album for Projekt Records, the aptly titled Windblown Kiss.