Lovespirals will play the headlining slot of the 3-day festival’s opening night, as well as an intimate, stripped down performance the following evening for the Merchant’s Bazaar. Get more information from the ProjektFest site. This will be the live debut of the new lineup with guitarist, Ryan Lum, vocalist, Anji Bee, and guest saxist, Doron Orenstein.
Lovespirals are gearing up to release our first full length album this Summer on Projekt Records. Are you excited yet? You will be after you read our snappy new bio:
Lovespirals are musician/producer Ryan Lum and singer/songwriter Anji Bee. This duo’s lush, sensual collaborative songwriting embraces numerous styles and sounds, creating a unique blend which defies genre categories altogether. Beginning their collaboration in 1999 with Jazz Step Drum & Bass dubplates spun in Ryan’s DJ sets, then continuing on with a series of singles released on compilations for various labels (including Water Music and Metropolis Records), the band has traversed vast musical territory to arrive at their first full-length album for Projekt Records. Due out June 18, 2002, Windblown Kiss, is focused on beautiful melodies based around Ryan Lum’s dreamy acoustic and electric guitar playing and Anji Bee’s versatile vocal work. This first full-length album also features special guest musicians Sean Bowey, of Eden, and Doron Orenstein, of Frescoe, on several tracks. Slow-burning Blues, Bebop Jazz, Flamenco-spiced Folk Rock, Western-tinged Dream Pop – Lovespirals blend all these influences and more into heady, intoxicating mixture. Romantic, spiritual, and utterly heartfelt, Windblown Kiss envelopes one in a beautifully soothing dream-drenched world, timeless in quality and essence.
— Projekt Records
Another review has come in for the new holiday Projekt comp. Matt Rowe of MusicTap gives the Maxi CD a 4 out of 5 star rating and a glowing review which reads, in part:
“The Excelsis collection issued by Projekt are comprised of some of the most mystically enchanting songs that refer to the Christmas holidays. With ghostly reverence that is ethereally communicated to us by the artists that interpret the selections, we are taken on a journey of such aching perfection that we can only melt into the songs, become one with them. With the release of Excelsis 3 ~ A Prelude, Projekt have provided us with yet another great set of beautifully rendered Christmas tunes. Lovespirals gives us “Aspen Glow”, a song borrowed from John Denver and sweetly sung in as good a version as you’ll ever hear by the beautiful Anji Bee, who’s voice is as charming as a winter scene that you become lost in. Ryan and Anji’s respect for the season is deeply felt. This track has become one of my favorite seasonal songs.”
Rowe’s view on the holiday season could honestly not be in more stark contrast to the fellow from Chain D.L.K., almost comically so. But its nice to know that both people who hate and revere Christmas adore the Excelsis compilation series:
“Christmas is a wonderful time that delineates the essence of everything pure and good. It is a mystery that can never be contained nor revealed and yet, is felt as a pain of something never grasped. The fundamental nature of it is in the beauty of the songs on this disc but vanishes as soon as you take the disc out of the player. Regardless, they leave a resonant peace that you can count as ‘value added’. Cheers to Projekt for this collection and the sets that preceded it. My Christmas wish is that Projekt would carry on with this series and continue to provide us with the intrinsic magnificence that is Christmas.” – Matt Rowe
Be sure to order your copy of this holiday themed Maxi CD from Projekt!
A cheeky review has been posted on gothic industrial site, Chain D.L.K. written by Shaun Hamilton. It reads, in part:
“Ahhhhh, X-Mas…. The smell of pinecones roasting on the fire — or something like that. Or was it elves? Hell, toss them in there too! I hate X-Mas, and I’m not a cheery one to have around the house at that time of year, but this CD is something good to come out of it and the series in general. Projekt has always been music made for winter time and it shows why this is my choice music to listen to on a nice winter day inside. Lovespirals kicks in with their special brand of babymaking music. I can’t help it, everything this bands sings and plays sounds so kinky and sensual, but still so classy! And it is the first time I’ve heard someone sounding dead on like Liz Frazier without being a knockoff.”
If you’re intrigued, be sure to grab a copy of this holiday themed Maxi CD from Projekt!
Projekt has released a new Excelsis Christmas/Winter themed compilation CD, Excelsis 3 ~ a Prelude, which kicks off with our cover of John Denver’s catchy folk-pop song, “Aspenglow.” This is actually the first song featuring Anji to appear on a Projekt release… Several sneak-peek tracks from the upcoming Lovespirals album are also available on MP3.com, so come take a listen!
Staffer Kevin’s Top Ten Picks for 2001
“2001: 10 Best From a Year of Blood and Fire”
The Chinese curse about interesting times comes to mind when reviewing 2001: so does the line about rough beasts slouching toward Bethlehem. For much of 2001 world events made it difficult to concentrate on silly things like music and entertainment. Still, there were some excellent releases this year, as Gothic and Industrial Music lurched into the 21st century.
10/9 Tie: Lovespirals Ecstatic (Projekt) & Claire Voyant Time Again (Metropolis)
As synthpop’s rise led inexoribly to its decline, some Gothic/Industrial artists have started looking toward other avenues of inspiration. On these releases, Lovespirals and Claire Voyant provide tasty Illbient and Trip Hop influenced grooves and give us a harbinger of Goth’s Next BigThing.
(Ed. note: it should be noted that “Time Again” includes a track remixed by Lovespirals.)
Water Music Records just released 2 various artist compilations with Lovespirals tracks. We’re excited to be included on a comp with one of our favorite producers, LTJ Bukem! You can listen to RealAudio or Windows Media files at their site, as well as make an online purchase, so check it out…
We just dropped a 4 song MP3.com DAM CD of brand new post-Flux era atmospheric d’n’b tracks, called the Ecstatic EP, for those fans looking to pick up the full dance versions. Hope all you DJs out there have a CD turntable!
A Q&A with Anji Bee just went up on the DAXX site. You can read the full interview over there, but here’s a good selection of topics.
DAXX: In 10 words or less, describe your demeanor.
ANJI: “Mellow” is always the word that comes up about Ryan! I’m kind of a mix of mellow and intense, depending on the situation. Ryan always says I’m “sweet”. Other people tend to say that I’m “cool.”
DAXX: What genre of music do you like to produce? To listen to?
ANJI: We had been making Atmospheric jazz step drum ‘n’ bass the past couple years, but we just completed a downtempo vocal track last night, and I hope we go in that direction for some more songs. We’re also talking about trying a vocal house tune, probably with the help of our jazzy house collaborators, Gabriel D. Vine and Doron Orenstein. They’ve gotten us more interested in deep house stuff ‘coz they have a great band, called Toof, that does that sort of thing. I’m thinking about doing stuff along the lines of some of the Om Records releases — very groovy, mellow dance music with sexy vocals. Ryan wants to use a lot of Rhodes and sax, and experiment more with the beats and grooves. We want to keep it very jazzy, and atmospheric — that’s the main thing!
Rik of The Violet Collective interviewed Anji Bee about her various creative endeavors on mp3.com. You can read the full Q&A over at the Violet Collection site.
Maybe you’ve seen her face around the mp3.com site, or maybe you’ve heard one of her collaborations with Lovespirals, or Voiceless, or Delphinium, or, well, you get the picture. Anji Bee is the voice behind a number of bands I’ve grown to enjoy, so I thought that it’d be kinda neat to have a little chat with her for The Violet Collection…
RIK: You divide your time between a few projects, Lovespirals and Delphinium being the most visible. How does this affect the way you write? Do you sit down with the idea of writing a Lovespirals song for example, or do you decide where a piece will be used after it’s written?
ANJI: I haven’t actually done any recording for Delphinium (formerly known as Datura) in a few years. Justin and I started doing other projects, and then he stopped making music. He’s been saying he wants to get back into it, so perhaps we’ll collaborate again sometime in the future. Since I’ve been in Lovespirals I’ve collaborated with a number of different musical projects, though — mostly during the end of 1999 to mid-2000. I was so excited to join Lovespirals that I went into a really creative period of songwriting, and my song journal was just overflowing.
Continue reading The Violet Collective Interview
