After a long delay, you can finally purchase the newly expanded Ardor [Remastered Reissue] on iTunes. This 2007 version of Love Spirals Downwards’ classic 1994 sophomore album includes 3 bonus tracks; a live recording of the classic “Write in Water,” an unreleased outtake from the album sessions called “Oisin and Niam,” and an alternate mix of “I Could Find It Only By Chance,” also from the original album sessions. Once again, band founder, Ryan Lum, completely remastered the album from the original DATs to bring out more sonic clarity than ever before, and the artwork has been recreated from the original photograph to striking results!
Melodyguild CD Release Party & Performance
Suzanne’s band, Melodyguild, are scheduled to have a CD release party at Club Violane in LA’s Chinatown district this Saturday. The band will be performing songs from their brand new release, Aitu, out now on Projekt Records.
Melodyguild EP Released by Projekt
The long awaited debut album by Melodyguild — the band of Love Spirals Downwards’ vocalist, Suzanne Perry — has finally been released! The ‘Aitu’ EP — originally announced in early 2003 — will officially drop June 10th, but it’s available online now via Projekt. This 4-song digipac CD is currently #6 on the Projekt Top 10 – congrats!
Iprong Magazine Feature Lovespirals
The April 2nd “100% Podsafe” issue of iProng Magazine features an interview with Anji discussing Lovespirals, going podsafe, getting into podcasting, music licensing, live performance vs studio recording, and much more. Also included this issue is a great article on eMusic vs Amazon downloads, interviews with fellow podsafe artists Geoff Smith and Natalie Gelman, and an article with Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes, who released their new single to the Podsafe Music Network.
100% PodSafe Edition, iProng Magazine Artist Feature on Lovespirals
For someone who isn’t familiar with Lovespirals, how would you describe it to them?
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Pop Matters Reviews Idylls & Ardor Reissues
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.
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More ‘Long Way From Home’ Reviews
Reviews are still popping up of Lovespirals’ recent album, Long Way From Home, in partial thanks to the efforts of Ariel PR who helped to push the album when it was released this past October 23rd.
Miles Klee said in Hot Indie News:
Bluesy slide guitar work sometimes shades over into Santana-like finger-meandering, and vocalist Anji Bee’s layered voice paints bright glaze over already dreamy arrangements. It’s as though the glancing disaffection of 80’s and 90’s dream-poppers has been filtered through an AM radio, a mutation that works by dint of sounding completely natural on an evolutionary view.
From the Green Arrow Radio blog:
More than melancholic music, there is a sense that they traveled with you on similar & familiar roads with the radio tuned to the same left of the dial station in the middle of wherever. After nearly a decade of artistic collaboration between singer/songwriter, Anji Bee, & multi instrumentalist & producer, Ryan Lum, it is no wonder that they have managed to put together an album of answers to questions yet asked with a subtle sultry sense of sound security.
The Celebrity Cafe‘s Ray Anderson mused:
Empty and sad, but of full of emotion, their album Long Way from Home is medicine for those that dig the alternative. How can you take a gut-wrenching classic like “Motherless Child” and make it sadder? Let the “Lovespirals” get a hold of it. It’s easy to fall into the loose, country-tinged groove of “Caught in a Groove” and let your soul be taken for a ride. By the time the “upbeat” “Lovelight” comes on, you won’t mind being “A Long Way from Home,” and I think you’ll want to stay there.
Idylls and Ardor Reissue Reviews
More reviews for the reissues of our first 2 albums have appeared online on MusicTap, Re:Gen Mag (Idylls and Ardor), two.one.five magazine (Idylls and Ardor), and The Mick – a downloadable PFD magazine. Some are better than others, but I guess you have to take the bad with the good on the old Internet.
Opus Zine Reviews Long Way From Home
Jason Moore reviewed Lovespirals’ latest album, Long Way From Home, for his Opus Zine. You can read the full review on his website.
It doesn’t feel quite right to say that Lovespirals is merely the new incarnation of Love Spirals Downwards, even though it’s pretty obvious why folks (myself included) would say that — and not just because of the name similarities. While founder/songwriter Ryan Lum has largely eschewed the gothic/darkwave overtones of his previous band, there’s still no denying that the ghosts of acts such as the Cocteau Twins still haunt their way through Lovespirals’ Long Way From Home. One need only to listen to hazy guitar strums or shimmery effects on “Empty Universe,” “Treading The Water,” or “Sundrenched” for that to become readily apparent.
And then there’s Anji Bee’s vocals. Bee lets her voice drift and sway through the album’s ten tracks in a manner recalling Love Spirals Downwards’ previous vocalists (such as Suzanne Perry), Liz Frazier (minus the glossolalia), and even Tracey Thorn (Everything But The Girl). You know what I’m talking about: a manner that is seductive, not so much for its sultriness and smokiness, but for its ethereal and otherworldly nature.
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Motherless Child EP Out
Lovespirals’ Motherless Child EP has just been released on iTunes+, eMusic, and Amazon Mp3. This digital only release features 6 remixes of the first single from the duo’s most recent album, Long Way From Home. Artists included are Karmacoda, Hungry Lucy, MoShang, Chris Caulder of Beauty’s Confusion, and The Black Channel Citizen — plus one by Lovespirals’ own Ryan Lum.
MusicTap Reviews Idylls & Ardor Reissue CDs
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.
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