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News

Ruídos Alternativos Feature

Pretty crazy how people as far away as Brazil know about Love Spirals Downwards. Ruídos Alternativos #9 has a one-page feature on the band. Below is a an English translation as well as the original article.

Love Spirals Downwards

It all began with Ryan Lum, a lover of bands from the acclaimed 4AD label, who recorded tapes just to satisfy himself. They were instrumental songs that didn’t worry about vocals. He has played guitar since he was 15 and started composing in ’86. For about five years, the sound developed, grew, and created its own style. Then Suzanne Perry appeared.

From this meeting on, vocals gained a certain importance in Love Spirals’ music. They recorded some demos and sent them to a few labels, including Projekt. Sam responded and asked to hear more and more material. Later, he asked if they would like to appear on the compilation “From Across This Gray Land No. 3” (92). They accepted and sent two [songs] — “Mediterranea” and “And The Wood Comes Into Leaf”. Soon after, they received the invitation to release their own CD, and then came the excellent “Idylls”, also in ’92.

Continue reading Ruídos Alternativos Feature →
Interview

Fond Affexxions Version 1.2, Indian Summer 1993

An epic interview done by Jon Gonzales with Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry appears in the Fond Affexxions fanzine, issue 1.2. The following is a transcription, and you can also see scans of the actual ‘zine pages, as well.

IDYLLS:

Fond Affexxions: This CD of yours. Idylls  was your first recorded piece, and I was very impressed. As far as how it came out… Were you happy with it? Did it come out as you intended? 

Suzanne Perry: After working on it as long as we did, you really don’t want to hear it anymore (Laughter), so think we stopped listening to it for a couple of months. Then when we started listening to it again, it came out better than we thought it did. I mean, every time we finished a song. I thought. God, what an awful song. Let’s not use that one…  In retrospect, after that’s worn off, we like it. I like it better now. 

Ryan Lum: After the CD came out (a couple months later ahead), I started liking it more. Even when I finished mixing it, it pretty much came out like I wanted it to. It wasn’t a disaster or anything. 

Suzanne Perry: We didn’t have a DAT machine before, so we had to mix it all at once. 

Fond Affexxions: You mixed it all and then bumped it to DAT? 

Ryan Lum: No, no… over about three weeks we mixed it down… I guess that’s a long time. I was kinda nervous having it for three weeks!(Laughter) 

Continue reading Fond Affexxions Version 1.2, Indian Summer 1993 →
News

Altered Mind #14, August 1993 LSD + Halo Flexi-Disc

Our friends at The Altered Mind are offering a FREE flexi disc with the latest issue! Here’s the details listed in the zine:

The two bands above contributed to the AM’s first audio release, an 8’/” clear flexi-disc soundsheet. The total running time of the two songs is 7:12. The HALO track is previously unreleased and the Love Spirals Downwards track is a remix of a rare song. Some of the issues came with the free flexi, but we pressed it in a limited edition of only 1000 copies. If you did not receive one free, we are offering them for $2 for the first one and $1 for each additional soundsheet.

— Altered Mind

There’s also a nice little writeup about the band:

Since the release of their debut album Idylls in December 1992, Love Spirals Downwards have broken Projekt sales records without precedent. The duo made their first recorded appearance on Projekt’s August 1992 From Across This Gray Land #3 compilation, opening the album with two mesmerizing tracks from a then-unknown band. To date, the band’s recorded output comprises the album, the two Gray Land tracks, and a song on the Silent Records compilation Fifty Years of Sunshine.

When asked what makes their music so alluring among the bands on the Projekt roster, Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry affirm their uniqueness on the label. “Compared to other Projekt bands, we’re more accessible, but that’s not what makes it alluring. What’s so good about the ethereal turn we’ve taken on the gothic scene is that it’s more uplifting, not depressing. It’s escapist music.”

Love Spirals Downwards are currently working on new material for a Proiekt album with a slated release for Summer ’94.

As if that weren’t cool enough, the band is also featured full-page on the back cover, which is actually printed upside down and looks like an alternate cover for this issue.

Interview

As If, Issue 2, August 1993

+ Interview by Clint Catalyst +

One evening in August, I had the opportunity to speak with Ryan and Suzanne of the band Love Spirals Downwards. After difficulties with my answering machine and the discovery that Ryan’s mom used to live in Russellville, Arkansas (small world, huh?), they were both friendly and eager to discuss the vital information of their musical endeavors. Maybe they were both in good spirits from the Japanese food they had just finished eating, but they seem like tremendous individuals…

As If: When did the two of you first “hook up,” so to speak?

Ryan: We started singing together in January of 1991.

Suzanne: My sister was singing with Ryan, maybe like one or two songs, and then I was going to school in London for a while and hearing tapes of my sister’s, and they never really got off the ground and did that much stuff. So I came back, and basically a little bit after that, we started singing — I started singing on his music — and from then on, we sent out some tapes. Projekt Records liked us and asked us if we wanted to be on Grey Land III.

Ryan: We knew almost nothing about the label, actually.

Continue reading As If, Issue 2, August 1993 →
News, Review

Altered Mind 13, May 1993: Idylls Review

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.

Be sure to check out the Love Spirals Downwards interview in Altered Mind #12.

Interview

Isolation #13, February/March 1993

The following interview was done with Ryan of the Southern California ethereal band Love Spirals Downwards in late September 1992. Suzanne, the singer, wasn’t present during the interview because after she saw Ryan’s comments they covered “most everything she would also cover.” Love Spirals Downwards appeared on the infamous From Across This Gray Land No. 3 and their debut album will be out in December 92 on Projekt as well. I can’t wait because I know this band will be one of the best in the country.

Interview by Nathan Linscheid

Isolation: What bands were you in before Love Spirals Downwards?

Ryan: I was in several, but none which you would have heard of. Love Spirals Downwards was the first band I had in which I really thought that the music was exciting and original sounding I believe that all the different types of music that I have listened to throughout the years such as ethereal, ambient, East Indian Classical, psychedelic ’60’s, and tribal/percussive have been blended into our eclectic sound — though I’m not sure if you can hear all these things just from our two songs on Gray Land 3. Our CD/CS, Idylls, will have a more all-inclusive representation of our sound.

Continue reading Isolation #13, February/March 1993 →
Interview

Noising Therapy No6  (Winter 1992/93)

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.

Continue reading Noising Therapy No6  (Winter 1992/93) →
Interview, Review

The Altered Mind #12, Sept. 1992 Interview & Review

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At our usual cozy interview spot, we spoke with new Projekt band Love Spirals Downwards’ only two members, Ryan and Suzanne. IT was the first interview ever from a band which has played just one live show. Uncertain as to their place in the scene but with a sound that leads the way, Love Spirals Downwards is a band to watch. Interview by Ariel and Aillinn.

Ryan: Is the whole interview like question and answer, or is it going to be more of an article?

AM: No, question and answer… Having heard only the two songs, “Mediterranea” and “Forgo” on [Projekt compilation] From Across This Gray Land No. 3, what can we expect from your album, which is due out in November?

Ryan: We’re mixing it right now. We just mixed the first three of the eleven or twelve songs. It will have a different feel than “Mediterranea” and “Forgo.” It’s more… what do you think? Trancey, Eastern.

Suzanne: We were a little reluctant to put those two songs on, when he [Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal] chose those two. Those are two of the three first songs that we ever sent him. They’re a little old. They’re about a year old. I guess the sound’s a little bit different [on the album]. It is a little more trancy, more Indian or Middle Eastern sounding.

Continue reading The Altered Mind #12, Sept. 1992 Interview & Review →