Matt Rowe reviews “Windblown Kiss”

Ryan Lum, the mainstay of Lovespirals (formerly Love Spirals Downwards ), is in complete control of this band and its direction. Having flitted in and out of several styles without losing its base sound, Lovespirals comes to an extravagant and pleasing approach in their newest offering, Windblown Kiss. Suzanne Perry, the band’s former chanteuse, is missed but her disappearance is forgiven by the shockingly beautiful and sultry voice of Anji Bee. Windblown Kiss is a satisfying surprise offering from a band that stands out in an ever burgeoning sea of bands for all its gorgeous song arrangements.

This release, like sugar on our tongues, is a sweet indulgence. Every song features the erotically charged vocals of Anji Bee and the slowly building tension of Ryan Lum’s jazzed up and sexy instruments. From the flamenco tones of “Dejame” to the icy hot, night summer breezed, slow drip of “Our Nights”. “Our Nights” is a remembrance piece, a nostalgic stroll through the countryside of our memories to times when love and infatuation meant a dreamy walk in the nightlights of Paris . “He Calls Me” recounts the absolute joy of love& how it clouds yet reveals the irridescence and glory of passion.

“Swollen Sea” speaks of a love that is lost to an ever growing sea of lost loves, the shimmering sadness emanating likes heat waves from a boiling sun. The sheer magnitude of the solitary, after hours, soft push and plea to betrayed love that is “I Can’t See You” with the saxophone giving voice, pleading, pleading to make the departure easier than it is. A better than five minute tune, it engulfs you into its soul and swallows you. But& if you hang on for several minutes of silence, you become refreshed with a bluesy, demo-like tune that merrily intones, “You got me feeling down, you got me feeling so blue”.

The other songs are equally blessed and imbued with the engulfment of love and the sticky displeasure of separation. Ten songs in all with a bonus track buried deep in the afterglow of “I Can’t See You”. Wait a few minutes and it will show up. There are clearly several singles on this CD. My choice? The catchy and haunting “Our Nights “. But “You Girl” and “Dejame” are blissful and are wonderful selections as well. The booklet, a tri-fold six- pager, with photos, notes, credits and lyrics is done well. The photos are perfect, the lyrics readable and the overall package a pleasant acquisition. The production on the CD is clear and well recorded.

This album gives us the gift of remembering what once was good with love and anticipation. It encourages us and gives us hope that it can be that way again. I was swept away on echoed guitar notes, carried through the ether of love and hope, deposited into the womb of affection. And on that journey, I saw slightly swaying bodies, loosely holding onto their lovers; hearts joined to the timekeeping of drums until it was all the same beat. That is the impact of this CD, a soundtrack for what drives us to fall in love, what forms every lip to whisper, to moan. I cannot wait for the next contribution from Lovespirals.

Ryan and Anji …You Rule!! (4 stars)

musictap.net

Ned Raggett reviews “Windblown Kiss”

When the original partnership of Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry in Love Spirals Downwards dissolved, the result was a new romantic and musical union between Lum and singer/songwriter, Anji Bee. With the band slightly renamed to indicate the difference between the new directions the duo explored, the first effort from the two was the excellent Windblown Kiss.

Advantageously, it isn’t a radical departure from Lum’s earlier work  this isn’t Mojave 3 as different from Slowdive, say  but instead a fascinating and beautiful new path that draws from his past without repeating it. It’s evident not merely in his own playing  he’s just as apt to explore moody blues licks, acoustic flamenco and bossa nova lines, as well as his trademark digital delay lushness  but the range of the songs as a whole.

Bee’s singing is key here  instead of the angelic bliss-out of Perry, her approach blends that touch with a subtly sassier tang, reflecting her love for singers like Billie Holiday. Indeed, much of the album feels like a performance at a very classy (but not dull) late-night establishment, with subtle grooves and the sense of passionate love suffusing the air. That she can manage the wonderfully romantic Spanish-language song “Dejame,” with appropriately delicate Latin pop arrangements — not to mention equally fine singing elsewhere in German and French — as well as a cover of an obscurity by America, “You Girl,” gives a good sense of her abilities.

With fine guest work from Doron Orenstein on saxophone and, in two excellent duets with Bee, “How the Thieves Ride” and “You Are the Gun,” Eden’s Sean Bowley on both vocals and guitar, Windblown Kiss adds up as an enveloping, invigorating listen that avoids any easy “Goth” tag to find its own darkly passionate medium. (4 stars)

allmusic.com