All posts by ryan

LSD featured on Topher Mix

A laptop DJ set by Topher — originally performed June 7, 2006 at Café Des Arts in Nice, France — has just surfaced on Mixcloud. Called Ambient Journey Into IDM & Glitchy Breaks Mix, the first of two parts includes Love Spirals Downwards alongside tracks by Lexaunculpt, Kid 606, The Orb, Autechre, Kraftwerk, and others. It looks like this recording may have initially circulated through Topher’s netlabel Aries Slant Recordings as a direct-download 320 kbps MP3 file, but this is the first time we’ve encountered it.

The 1994 Ardor version of “Sunset Bell (feat. Jennifer Ryan Fuller)” appears here, cross-mixed with Kid 606’s “Soniqizzmaster.” Interestingly, back in January 1999, Kid 606 and Ryan both appeared at Sterile, a cool Costa Mesa event put on by KUCI DJ 9-5 Superspy, who also included “Nova” by Love Spirals Downwards on the 1998 2xCD KUCI benefit compilation Loraine alongside Lexaunculpt, who also appears in this mix. Small world!

Gothic Beauty Reviews Future Past

To our great surprise, Gothic Beauty included a review of Lovespirals’ 2010 album, Future Past, in the latest issue of their 80 page glossy color magazine. Gothic Beauty Issue 33 is available now at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Hastings, Chapters, Walden Books, Book World, Sheltam Books and Copperfield’s Books – or directly via gothicbeauty.com. Reviewer Michael writes, in part:

“This album is designed for chill atmospheres. It reminds me of late nights at the bar and a jukebox loaded with good music. The song “Rain” is not to be missed — I’ve fallen in love with the song and want to have the song’s babies.”

Re:Gen Mag Reviews Future Past

Re:Gen online magazine review of the latest Lovespirals album:

Ryan Lum and Anji Bee go big on their fourth full-length album, adding ‘70s blues and progressive rock elements to their chilled out soul-tinged electronica.

Their fourth album together is a step into a bigger sound for Ryan Lum and Anji Bee. The duo’s fascination for ‘70s soul and jazz is amplified in Lum’s production, with the Rhodes piano that gave 2007’s Long Way from Home so much of its signature warmth joined by lush, almost disco-tinged strings on the languid, smokey “Rain” and the laidback but funky “Water Under the Bridge.” The guitars are bigger too, the spaced out progressive instrumental “Meanwhile, Irreplaceable Time Flees” segueing into the wah-wah-laced soul of “Insignificant.” Bee’s voice is stronger, more mature, and more powerful this time around as well; Lum and Bee have a reputation for love songs, but “Feel So Good” and “Shine” are positively lusty, highlighting both Bee’s range and her sensuality. The real standout on this album, though, is “Home,” which is more reminiscent of earlier Lovespirals songs in its cozy romantic vibe but features the best singing the pair have ever recorded, with subtle multi-tracking enhancing an already impressive vocal showing.

Continue reading Re:Gen Mag Reviews Future Past

Suzanne’s Infamous Chupacabra Story

Do you remember when the X-Files had that episode with the Chupacabra? Well, it made a big impact on Love Spirals Downwards back in the day. Suzanne commented on its spooky power in this infamous story told live on-stage at the Projekt Festival on 8/1/1997, held at The Vic Theatre in Chicago, IL. Classic Suz stage banter!

Read Ryan’s original post about ProjektFest 1997 mentioning the rowdy crowd issue. There’s some great performance photographs, as well.

Ecstatic EP on Bandcamp & Streaming Services

At long last, the Ecstatic EP is available again! Recorded at the turn of the millennium –post-Flux, but pre-Temporal — this early Lovespirals release was once sold as an on-demand CDR, but has been unavailable since mp3.com went out of business. You can now find this classic drum n bass gem on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or our fave new service, Bandcamp.

Continue reading Ecstatic EP on Bandcamp & Streaming Services

Hypnagogics ‘Flux’ Review

A retrospective look back at Love Spirals Downwards album, ‘Flux,’ appeared on the Hypnagogics blog. Unfortunately it includes an illegal download of the album, as well, when they could have simply added links to legal streaming files, but since they aren’t respecting our content rights, it seems fair for us to share theirs, in turn.

‘Flux’ Review by Autech

For a couple of years in the mid to late 90’s any movie trailer that you saw that had any sense of futuristic action featured a generic breakbeat track typically over some throaty unintelligible female vocals. For some reason, the drum and bass breakbeat became shorthand for futuristic action movies. Some of these films actually featured full soundtracks in the same vein, like The Matrix movies. The funny thing about all of this is D&B didn’t become the music of the future, and pretty much all of it sounds incredibly dated. Even current artists who produce within the genre have a hard time breaking out of the box that they got put in in the 80’s.

Continue reading Hypnagogics ‘Flux’ Review

LSD’s “Little Drummer Boy” on SoundCloud

The last song Suzanne ever recorded with Love Spirals Downwards was an atmospheric drum ‘n’ bass version of the classic Christmas song, “The Little Drummer Boy,” with jazzy Rhodes piano by guest musician, Gabriel D. Vine. Rejected by Projekt for use on an Excelsis holiday comp, it was never officially released, but has been made available online as an MP3 sometimes called “The Little Drum ‘n’ Bass Boy.” Ryan just put it up on his new SoundCloud account — Merry Christmas!

Idylls & Ardor Reissue CDs on Sale at Projekt

Projekt is currently offering the recently remastered reissues of Love Spirals Downwards’s first two albums, Idylls and Ardor — as well as the debut Lovespirals album, Windblown Kiss — as part of their 3 for $20 sale. Also included in the list of 84 discounted CDs and other items is the Projekt 100 compilation containing “Kykeon (50 Years of Sunshine Mix)”, which is a rare remix not available on any of the band’s albums. A Dark Noel (in the Excelsis series) ~ 3 — featuring LSD’s shoegazery version of “Welcome Christmas” — is also a part of the sale. This track is also not available on any of the band’s albums. Now would be a great time to fill in your collection!

Back From Our San Francisco Trip

Once again, we had a blast with Karmacoda! It was an honor for Anji to share the stage with them for their epic remix of “Motherless Child,” and fun for Ryan to do a DJ set for the Harlot crowd. A few of the songs for the upcoming Anji Bee album were shared for the first time, which was exciting. Local friends came out to hang. Good times!

Love Remixes EP Out Now

The first single from Lovespirals’ fourth album, Future Past, to get the full remix treatment is “Love” – an atmospheric drum ‘n’ bass tune that recalls some of the duo’s earliest work together. A half dozen producers from  different musical schools of thought set Anji Bee‘s poppy yet ethereal vocals to completely new musical scores. From angular drum ‘n’ bass, to lush downtempo, to atmospheric ambient music, this moody collection covers a lot of sonic ground. And Anji’s Chillcast listeners should be familiar with most — if not all — of the contributing producers which includes: Chill Factor-57 Day VisaDivasonicSoul Whirling SomewhereXurba and Falling You (who, btw, created the only mix which contains Ryan Lum‘s original guitar solo.) Purchase the full EP or individual tracks friTunesAmazon Mp3CDbabyeMusicRhapsody, or Bandcamp