Man some jerk somehow made a spam entry on 100 blog entries. WTF? I didn’t check what the links were, but they didn’t seem to make any sense. There was no text to temp one into clicking them, either. It was just stupid and pointless. Why target our little blog, anyway? Geez spammers suck ass.
All posts by ryan
All Music Guide reviews "Free & Easy"
Ned Raggett reviews “Free & Easy”
Windblown Kiss was a lovely way for Lovespirals to make a clear move away from the days of Love Spirals Downwards, but Free & Easy is the best evidence that the duo of Ryan Lum and Anji Bee is now distinctly its own creative team. With Lum’s guitar playing and arranging now focused on, indeed, free and easy jazz/lounge grooves, Lovespirals here are much more in the creative vein of an act like the Thievery Corporation instead of the Cocteau Twins, say, without specifically cloning either group’s sound. Bee’s singing is a perfect counterpoint, a blend of classic mid-century jazz- pop flow and a bit of ’60s cool in a French or Brazilian sense — some low-key scatting here, some warm, playful crooning there. The gently hip-shaking title track kicks things off and sets the mood all at once, and from there Lovespirals work through a total of nine songs, all of a piece but each with its own gentle joys. Lum’s interest in DJing and techno can readily be heard throughout, more overtly on songs like “Deep in My Soul,” which quickly builds into a politely propulsive dancefloor filler, and “Just Trouble” but in subtler ways as well, as listens to “Hand in Hand” confirm. But the overall tone of the album is best captured with songs like “Walk Away,” a slow and lovely late-night mood-out with some great keyboard work from Lum to go with his guitar, and “Abide,” with its sassy but gentle strut. Concluding song “Sandcastles” might actually be the strongest of the bunch, easygoing and danceable all at once, concluding with a lovely overdubbed a cappella chorus from Bee.
Holiday CD Sale!
To celebrate the holiday season, Lovespirals are holding a sale now through
New Year’s Eve at their official webstore. New CD, Free & Easy is now just
$9.99 while the 2 CD gift set of both Free & Easy and 2001’s
Windblown Kiss is just $15.99. Band members, Ryan Lum and Anji
Bee, will personally autograph the CDs, too – even ones for your friends and
family. Folks in the USA placing orders immediately have a pretty good shot
of getting them by Christmas because the band will ship them out ASAP.
LastFM
Man, FINALLY I got the audio files working on LastFM. I couldn’t get anyone to respond to my requests for help until just this week. He suggested what I had already considered doing, which is simply reuploading everything again. Hopefully the tunes will start populating into the various radio streams and getting out to the listeners. LastFM is a cool site, but they have so much going on over there that sometimes the system gets overburdened and wacky. Anyway, glad to see it’s finally working, a month and a half later.
Podcast Episode 9 Up now!
At long last, we settled into the studio for another podcast. We had so much to catch up on that it’s 15 minutes – the longest yet! Find out more on the podcast page…
Music Tap's Featured Artist, November 2005
Matt Rowe reviews “Free & Easy”
In a time where there are many flavours and derivations of music, giving listeners a multitude of choices, and allowing for precision of preference, Lovespirals, originally birthed as Love Spirals Downward[s] some years back, has become a provider of experiences.
Lovespirals’ evolutionary path has brought it down the road from gothic shoegazer pop to hypnotically provocative jazz that is, at once, sexy, sultry, and dreamy. Their last album, the transitional Windblown Kiss, provided hints and sneak peeks into the heart of this duo and where they were headed while their latest, Free & Easy, wades deeply into the stream of where they are.
On Free and Easy, the band’s second release with Anji Bee, who possesses a voice of honey, and a natural element that adds colour and flame to songs, exploring realms of intensities in varying degrees, there are 9 songs of jazz-fusion. With original member, Ryan Lum adding stylish guitar and keyboards to permeate the silky fabric of the new album, the lover of jazz in all of its incarnations will be quite entranced.
The album’s opener, “Free & Easy”, begins by exuding an exhilarating blend of heady and dizzying sensuality. Ryan Lum’s instrumental approach is simple and effective, wisely allowing the mood of the song to carry the listener to the album’s first deliberate destination. It’s followed by the sexually tense, “Hand in Hand”, a musically soft ‘in the moment’ tune of the perfection of love. Things pick up with the dance flavoured “Deep In My Soul” carried by a funky rhythm and delivered by Anji’s ‘by now heart pulsing’ voice. The tune is reminiscent of the ’80s brand of music.
“Walk Away” resembles the past of Lovespirals more readily than the other tunes but still underlines a mournful jazz that also resembles Sade. “Habitual” is one of the stronger songs on the album and reveals a melancholy brought on by the rut of sameness. The album’s strongest track, the ‘saved the best for last’ “Sandcastles” is clearly the band’s single. It has all of the elements going for it – lyrics, atmosphere, a brilliant soundtrack, that voice – that should alert a sleepy public to the dream-dripping gorgeousness of Lovespirals.
Lovespirals already showcases all of the reasons that they should be this period’s hip duo. What remains is for you to discover why I said it.
New CD Out Now
Lovespirals’ brand new CD, Free & Easy, was officially released
November 1st on the band’s own Chillcuts Records, with US distribution through Metropolis and Projekt Darkwave. The
album is also available through Amazon,
CDBaby, Auralgasms, and Isotank — as well as Lovespirals’ webstore. Ryan and Anji will personally autograph every CD bought directly from the band as a special thanks to fans for their support. For those who prefer digital downloads, Free & Easy is also on iTunes.
Abide
Some things abide
While others pass away
Like the ocean’s tide
That rise and falls each day
There’s things we keep
While some we give away
And others still are lost
Somewhere in the fray
Let it pass away (x4)
Some friends may go
While many others stay
And loves may die
To rise again some day
There’s fears we hold
And those we cast away
Like a worn out shoe
That we’ve outgrown in play
Let it pass away (x4)
Some things abide
While others pass away
Like the ocean’s tide
That rise and falls each day
Let it pass away (x4)
Let it pass away (x2)
— By Anji Bee (BMI)
Podcast Episode 8 Up now!
Yaaaawwwwn I am so tired. I don’t know about this whole time change thing, it’s too confusing. Anyway, the new podcast is up. It’s 10:10, oddly enough. We started a little contest, so go take a listen on the podcast page, if you haven’t already subscribed!
The guy in our podcast
OK, for those of you who have listened to the newest podcast (v.7), this is one of the photos of that guy I was talking about. For those that haven’t, check out the podcast and then you’ll know why I posted this!
Website updates
We started changing the site around a bit to reflect the imminent release of “Free & Easy,” starting with a new home page image, featuring a brand new band photo. We also added some splashes of color here and there, which really perks things up, it seems to me. Orange is so full of life. Kinda matches the whole Indian Summer thing going on out here in So Cal. Boy has it been hot! Oh yeah, we’ve also had some new band photos sprinkled throughout the pages. We’ll update the photo album eventually, as well. What else is new? Oh, new lyrics, of course. Got the rest of the album lyrics up this weekend. I think we’ll get some banner ads together soon so folks can link to the site off theirs, if they like. New audio will go up soon. Who knows what else? Keep checking back…
New Podcast Announces Street Date
Episode 6 of Chillin’ with Lovespirals is now up and ready for your
listening pleasure. The Lovespirals crew get a bit loopy as they announce the
official street date, talk of promotional plans, and ask fans for their input.
You can check it out through all the usual locations (ie. the website, iTunes,
Odeo, MySpace, Garageband etc…).