All posts by ryan

Little Drummer Boy on Streaming Platforms

Originally recorded in 1999 for Projekt’s Excelsis vol. 2 ~ a winter’s song compilation, “The Little Drummer Boy” by Love Spirals Downwards is a playful yet atmospheric throwback to the band’s Flux era—when Ryan Lum was exploring breakbeats, airy pads, 808 basslines, and flowing syncopated rhythms.

This drum & bass–infused reimagining of the holiday classic features Suzanne Perry’s luminous vocals wrapped in surprisingly contemporary production, along with melodic jazz Rhodes by guest musician Gabriel D. Vine, who also contributed to “Beatitude” from the 2001 Ecstatic EP.

After Projekt declined the track, Lum made the MP3 available through lovespirals.com for the 1999 holidays, later bringing it to platforms like MP3.com, MySpace, SoundCloud, and YouTube before finally releasing it on Bandcamp in 2011.

Now, “The Little Drummer Boy” is receiving its first official release on major streaming platforms—including Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music—so you can finally add this long-hidden holiday gem to your festive playlists.

Molten LSD Remix on Forever Chemicals

Following last month’s release of the three-track single Molten / CPU Maxxing + Love Spirals Downwards Remix, the “molten [feat. bbsanii] (Love Spirals Downwards Remix)” is now featured on the full-length debut album by Blue Ringed Baby & Kamī, titled Forever Chemicals.

Released on November 7, 2025, via the London-based drum and bass label goddezz, the project is described as a necessary respite: “In an age of overstimulation, the duo’s debut LP creates space to breathe with a lush fusion of breakbeats, ambience, and glowing vocals.” 

Mixmag Asia echoed this sentiment, calling the album “a fluid, dreamlike listen that highlights the duo’s balance of texture and emotion.” They noted that the remix section “widens the album’s palette, ranging from deep ambient jungle to Balearic trip hop cuts and warm, jazz-tinged bliss.” 

Dubiks further praised the record, stating: “The album drifts between ambient jungle, trip-hop, art-pop and shoegaze, merging these forms into something luminous and fluid,” later writing that the Love Spirals Downwards remix “brings a lounge-inspired and ethereal sensibility that shaped the 90s ambient electronica era.”

Reflecting on the collaboration in a recent episode of the Chillin’ with Lovespirals podcast, Ryan Lum admitted that remixing “Molten” had a deeply nostalgic effect, taking him “back to a nineties headspace and making Flux.” He added, “I was, like, right there; I just have different tools and stuff now and more ideas because I’m older and wiser.”

Also featured on the album are remixes by Stone and Placid Angels—the moniker of John Beltran. A 30-year music veteran like Ryan, Beltran is renowned for his lush, melody-first ambient techno. The album also highlights the continued collaboration with Australian producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist bbsanii; she previously worked with Blue Ringed Baby on their 2024 single “Nihilistic Tendencies” prior to appearing on “Molten.”

Listen to Forever Chemicals via Bandcamp below, or find it on all major streaming platforms.

“Without You” Single & Video Out Now

Lovespirals’ “Without You” is a lush, soul-baring ballad that blends Ryan and Anji Lum’s signature dream pop core with classic neo-soul vibes. Built upon a smooth foundation of acoustic and electric piano, the track is enriched by emotive strings and understatedly expressive guitar work. Ryan explores intricate chord voicings—extended harmonies like spacious ninths and fragile half-diminished chords—that mirror the push and pull between longing and reassurance. Weaving effortlessly through the instrumentation, Anji’s vocals are a captivating blend of rich, soulful natural low tones and shimmering high harmonies, delivering warmth and delicate vulnerability.

Though released under the revived Love Spirals Downwards moniker, “Without You” feels like a heartfelt return to form for Lovespirals, echoing the warm, soulful textures that defined their 2000s-era chillout sound. The release coincides with the 20th anniversary of Free & Easy (2005), the album that first crystallized the Lums’ seamless fusion of dream pop, soul, and downtempo elegance. Its sonic lineage extends through the bittersweet R&B feel of “Life Goes On” (2018) and “Why Not Today” (2023), as well as the duo’s forays into jazzy downtempo and electronica on Anji Bee’s 2013 album, Love Me Leave Me.

Following the introspective melancholy of “Nothing Even Matters Anymore” and the alluring electro-chillout of “Glittering,” “Without You” stands as both a homecoming and an evolution—an elegant meditation on enduring love, fear of loss, and the passage of time, glowing with the smooth sophistication that has long defined the Lums’ music. 

“Without You” is available now on SpotifyApple MusicAmazon Music, YouTube Music and other streaming platforms under the original band name, Love Spirals Downwards, as well as on Bandcamp under both LSD and Lovespirals. You can also watch a lyrics visualizer video on YouTube.

“Nothing Even Matters Anymore” Single & Video Released

Lovespirals dropped their latest single a week early exclusively for Bandcamp Friday, but the official release date is today, September 12th, on all streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music.

A haunting blend of gothic-tinged dream pop and atmospheric chill, “Nothing Even Matters Anymore” moves from hushed resignation to soaring catharsis. Anji Lum’s luminous vocal harmonies and Ryan Lum’s ethereal guitar weave a melancholic sound ideal for late-night reflection.

A lyric visualiser video is simultaneously available on YouTube:

Love Spirals Downwards x Blue Ringed Baby & Kamī

Had the pleasure of reimagining “Molten” by Blue Ringed Baby + Kami for their upcoming album on Goddezz. Took me back to the headspace I was in while making ‘Flux’ in 1997-98. Give it a listen! 

Shimmering breaks, weightless motion, glitched sparks of melody, lightness and transcendence… with Molten featuring inspirations and production from close collaborator of the duo bbsanii, the release is also accompanied by a rare remix from Love Spirals Downwards, the seminal 90s ethereal wave and dream-pop band whose work helped define an era of ambient electronica, jungle and atmospheric soundscapes. Their reimagining of “molten” drifts into lounge-inspired bliss, with dreamy guitars and a laid-back rhythmic sway.

Out now on Bandcamp, as well as streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music.

Early feedback on the remix via FatDrop is super positive, with NTS host RuF Dug saying, “Molten is gorgeous,” and Synkro calling it “Amazing!” Shai FM joked “Sooo good. I did not have a Love Spirals Downwards remix on my bingo card for this year,” and Stegi Radio’s Pink.wav playfully noted, “trip hop and downtempo are having a moment and we are here for it.”

Lost in Ohio Drops New Flux Eco-Vinyl Pressing

Originally released on CD in 1998, Flux has remained Love Spirals Downwards’ most beloved album. After the 2024 white vinyl reissue from Lost in Ohio quickly sold out, the label is meeting continued demand with this special 2025 edition.

This pressing is made from 100% recycled colored vinyl. With a recent upgrade at the pressing plant, even colored scraps can now be reprocessed—creating unique, multicolored records from in-house production waste. The exact color of each LP is unpredictable, but the sound quality is consistent and true.

The plant’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond the vinyl itself. It runs on green, CO₂-neutral energy with solar power, repurposes heat from the pressing process to warm the building, and prints sleeves with bio-inks on FSC-certified cardboard. All packaging materials are recycled as well.

I’m grateful that Flux continues to resonate and proud to share a version that is both musically enduring and environmentally responsible.

Reflections on LSD’s Ever from Peru Avantgarde

A lovely piece looking back on how the 1996 release of Love Spirals Downwards’ third album, Ever, affected listeners in Peru has surfaced. Dramatically entitled, “LSD IN LIMA: When the Ethereal Became a Trench”, Wilder Gonzales Agreda recalls how the duo’s ethereal sound arrived in Lima not through radio or TV, but passed hand-to-hand in the underground—photocopied tapes, hidden record shops, and shared rituals of listening that turned the fragile into a form of resistance.

“In a tense, brutal, and ugly city, Ever was like a crack of clean water. Music that didn’t scream ‘resistance’ but was, simply because it taught us we could also inhabit the fragile—that which lasts only an instant but stays tattooed in being forever.”

Part album review, part memoir, it’s an interesting read. Noticed he just posted a new interview with our Projekt label mate, Scott Cortez, as well as a review of Nearfield by my old buddies, Closedown, as well. Check it out!

Archival LSD Interviews with Ned Raggett

Music critic and former radio DJ Ned Raggett has generously shared archival audio of two key interviews from the Ever era. The first, conducted by phone with Ryan in 1996 for a Mean Streets feature, delves into the making of the Ever album and its single “Sideways Forest.” Ryan discusses the “Quantum Remix” of that track as an early glimpse into the new sound he was developing for their next album, Flux, while also reflecting on the band’s recent show in Mexico and his own contrasting feelings about live performance versus studio recording.

The second interview, recorded live in-studio with both Ryan and Suzanne on KUCI’s Music for Lunchpails in late 1997 (and later reprinted in the station’s Winter ’97 Program Guide), shifts the spotlight to Suzanne. Raggett invites her perspective on how the band’s sound was evolving, her musical and literary inspirations, and their recent appearance at ProjektFest. The conversation also touches on an early collaboration with Sean Bowley of Eden—sessions that would remain unreleased until Ryan revisited them years later for Lovespirals’ 2002 debut album, Windblown Kiss.

Together, these interviews chart a rare moment of transition, capturing both the promotional cycle surrounding Ever and the first stirrings of what would become Flux, while hinting at creative directions that would eventually surface in Lovespirals.


“Glittering” Single & Video Out Now

Lovespirals “Glittering” marks a shimmering return to chillout, channeling the hypnotic allure of millennial downtempo electronica through the band’s distinctive brand of dream pop. Built around a haunting piano motif, the track gradually unfolds into a sophisticated contemplation of beauty and illusion.

Anji Lum’s enchanting vocal interplay, characterized ever so slightly jazzy and low-lit phrasing layered with ethereal, witchy harmonies, imbues the song with a seductive yet cautionary aura. Her lyrics flicker between allure and regret, casting love as something dazzling but deceptive:

“Catching feelings / Fell for the flash / Foolish emotions / Now turned to ash.”

Ryan Lum’s signature fusion of electric and acoustic guitar is elegantly woven over a laid-back electronica groove, striking a harmonious balance between earthy tones and atmospheric ambiance. His Big Muff-soaked solo recalls the expressive restraint of Pink Floyd, culminating in a radiantly anachronistic climax—at once nostalgic and fresh.

Wrapped in a soulful, vintage-inspired rhythm and adorned with sparkling ambient touches, “Glittering” serves as both a loving nod to the duo’s past and a subtle reinvention. It invites listeners to lose themselves in the glow, even as it gently reminding them of the adage:

“All that glitters is not gold.”

“Glittering” is available now on SpotifyApple MusicAmazon Music, YouTube Music and other streaming platforms under the original band name, Love Spirals Downwards, as well as on Bandcamp under both LSD and Lovespirals.

Continue reading “Glittering” Single & Video Out Now

“Okay” Single & Video Out Now

Following the simmering defiance of “Boss Mode,” Lovespirals return with “Okay”— a slow-burning meditation on emotional exhaustion and disconnection, enveloped in a soundscape that seamlessly blends sensual modern R&B grooves with lush dream pop melancholy. Ryan Lum’s signature production style, characterized by ethereal guitar flourishes, emotive ebow leads, and haunting touches of acoustic guitar woven through sparkling synths and contemporary beats, sets the stage for Anji Lum’s soulful, natural-toned lead and airy high harmonies that gracefully drift above the mix. “Okay”further expands the lyrical and sonic universe that Anji and Ryan have been constructing—a realm of whispered truths, shadowed beauty, and the poignant space between our emotions and our words.

“Okay” is available now on Spotify, Apple MusicAmazon Music, YouTube Music and other streaming platforms under the original band name, Love Spirals Downwards, as well as on Bandcamp under both LSD and Lovespirals.

Continue reading “Okay” Single & Video Out Now