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.”
Lovespirals have just released a 40 minute, 9-track extended single of “Feel So Good,” from their 2010 album, Future Past. Last December, Sony Acid Planet held a remix contest for Lovespirals’ funky, Pink Floyd-esque, retro electro-rock tune, and over 40 producers put their own unique stamp on the original track. The Feel So Good EP features the very best of the bunch.
There’s the slinky trip hop grooves of Yumenomado’s grand prize winning “Film Noir Mix” and Noizz Factor’s jazzy “Glamour Mix,” both of which have a decidedly organic feel. Or check out the more electronic oriented mixes by DJ Chris and National Pool, who rely more on loops and classic drum machine patterns. If you’re into heavy beats, then the Electer and 7 Day Visa mixes should fit the bill. Def Men Walking took the song in a completely different direction with the addition of MC work and an old school Manchester feel. And then there’s Jack Ketch’s “Peckaries Parts 1, 2 & 3” which takes the song’s most Floydian elements and constructs an ode to the classic rock band that David Gilmour himself would likely chuckle over.
Anji Bee‘s soulful vocals hold the release together with their delicate balance of earthy sensuality and otherworldly ethereality, with each mix playing up different aspects. While some producers left the arrangement and vocal sound nearly untouched from Ryan Lum’s original mix, others played with sampling or pitch to use the voice more as a musical element.
Thanks to all of the bands and producers that participated in the remix contest, as well as to our friend, Jamahl Richardson, for his 7 Day Visa remix. If you dig their remixes, be sure to check out their original music. Thanks also to Scott of ithinkitsnice for his amazing artwork.
The 2-time NAR Lifestyle Music Award winning musical project, Falling You, just released a new album entitled, Adore. Enigmatic band founder and producer, John Michael Zorko, has long worked with a revolving cast of talented and varied female vocalists including Victoria Lloyd (of Claire Voyant and Mono Chrome), Dru Allen (of Mirabilis and This Ascension), Erica Mulkey (AKA Unwoman), Shikhee (of Android Lust), and Love Spirals Downwards‘ own Suzanne Perry.
In her first appearance with Falling You, Lovespirals’ vocalist, Anji Bee, contributes lyrics and vocals to the ambient opening track, “Blessed,” penned about her relationship with bandmate, Ryan Lum, who engineered and recorded her vocal tracks for this long distance musical collaboration. Friend of Lovespirals and Falling You, Ken Lee (of Eleven Shadows), mixed and mastered the track (and indeed, the whole album) alongside Zorko at his Blueberry Buddha Recording Studios.
Lum’s former bandmate, Suzanne Perry, contributed lyrics and vocals to the track, “Champagne,” which follows Bee’s cut on the album. With its summery dream pop feel, Perry’s collaboration brings to mind her work with Melodyguild. Perry’s vocals were engineered and recorded by Melodyguild bandmate, Cris Miller (of Silver Screen). Perry had previously been featured on Falling You’s 2006 album, Human, and 2008 album, Faith.
Another highlight of the album is closing track, “Alchemy,” featuring Kirsty Hawkshaw. Famous for her work with Opus II, BT, Tiesto, and Delerium, Hawkshaw has a long and impressive list of dance music credits to her name. Her breathy voice and high harmonies add a lovely depth and focus to Zorko’s light-as-air beats and textures.
Though known for his melancholic mix of ambient textures and ethereal vocals, Zorko wanted to “explore a more optimistic side of emotional music and this gift called life.” To this end, Zorko employed liberal use of heavy, distorted, electric guitar in the vein of classic 90’s shoegazer acts like My Bloody Valentine and Ride, which may surprise his long time listeners!
Adore is available as a digital download now directly from the Magnatune site, with CDs to follow soon. Watch for it on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, etc later this month.
San Francisco band, Karmacoda, invited Lovespirals to collaborate with them on music for their upcoming 4th album, Eternal. While the album is due out in August, the two songs featuring Anji and Ryan are out now. [8/2/2011 update: Eternal is out now on iTunes]
The Epic Single was just released this week and had its world premier on The Chillcast Episode #275. “Epic” includes guitar work by Ryan Lum, as well as Rhodes piano by Eamonn Flynn of SF duo, Under. In addition to the original album mix and reprise mix of “Epic,” the single includes an upbeat dance remix by Andy Sybilrud of SF electronica act, Return To Mono. Karmacoda frontwoman, Heather Pierce, has said “Epic” is her “favorite song” and it will likely be yours, too, once you hear her sultry siren’s call on this jazzy trip hop torch song.
As long time fans and friends of Karmacoda, Lovespirals were honored to be included in the creative process of this very talented band. Be sure to check out recent episodes of The Chillcast with Anji Bee to hear these tracks and more from Karmacoda’s fantastic new album, which we hear debuted at #191 on the CMJ Radio 200 Chart this week!
The album will also be available as a limited edition, audiophile grade 192g, blue vinyl LP on August 9th. Check www.karmacoda.com for purchase details.
A beautiful machinima video for Lovespirals’ song “Empty Universe” created by Japanese Second Life artist, Takashi Yagi (known as “Hiroaki Nirvana” in-game).
A beautiful machinima video for Lovespirals’ song “Empty Universe” created by Japanese Second Life artist, Takashi Yagi (known as “Hiroaki Nirvana” in-game) has been selected for the “SL Machinima Festival 2011 Summer” held by the Cinema Union. 10 machinima films will be shown at 10 Second Life virtual theaters from July 16th to August 7th. This event is free to attend and Second Life is free to join. The photo, left, is a screen capture of Anji — known as “Anji Riel” in-game — checking out the event poster at the Cinema Union Theater. She plans to attend the opening day of the film festival; keep an eye out for more details on Lovespirals’ Facebook page.
Check out the video below for more info and a clip of of the “Empty Universe” video.
Matt Rowe of MusicTap recently interviewed Anji Bee for a feature on the newly revamped music site. The piece goes into some depth about Anji’s thoughts on the current state of music while looking into the origins of her Chillcuts Digital label, the creation of her new The Chillcast with Anji Bee: 5 Years of Chillin’compilation, and how she selects music for her weekly podcast, The Chillcast with Anji Bee.
Anji, what prompted you to put together Chillcuts over five years ago? After a decade of being signed to Projekt Records, Ryan and I wanted to try releasing music independently for a change. The whole reason our debut album, Windblown Kiss, was released on Projekt was simply that Ryan still owed an album on his contract. I figured I had enough experience with online music distribution and promotion to handle a small record label, having done so much of that type of work for ‘Temporal‘ and ‘Windblown Kiss‘. I basically launched Chillcuts to release our second album, ‘Free & Easy.’ Ryan’s experience in building the back-end of websites helped me to create expensive websites on the cheap, while my experience in the visual arts and background in social media and promotions helped to drive sales. Oddly enough, it seems this first release is our most popular, which may speak to how much effort we put into making Chillcuts succeed right out of the gate.
Music has gone through so many changes over the decades. Do you feel that this generation of music provides enough in styles to help those caught in a decade of preference? First of all, what people need to realize is that there is a whole world of music that is not being played on the radio or TV. I get all the music I can handle and then some strictly from the Internet. And the variety of music available on the Internet is more vast that you can even imagine. It’s truly staggering how much great music is out there when you start searching for it.
What do you look for in a band that sends music across your desk? What do you listen for? The music needs to strike certain chords for me; I want to feel it in my gut. It could be a tear jerking lyric/vocal, or it could be a booty-shaking bassline/groove. It could be a gorgeous melody played on keyboard or guitar, or an amazing vocal harmony. It could simply be a really sweet string pad or a sitar hook — who knows? But I think there’s generally an element of authenticity in expression that I’m seeking. That’s what is wholly missing in the pop music industry. I want to feel what the artist was feeling when they were creating the song. I need to be drawn into that little world and feel immersed in it. Hearing a really sincere song is a bit like falling in love for me. Obviously not every song on the show can have that strong of an impact on me, but the more of them I can find and string together for a set, the better the show is.
Re:Gen online magazine posted a 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.
While Future Past is undeniably warm throughout, there are also hints of the cooler, more dreamlike elements present in their earliest work. “Love” is the project’s most unabashedly electronic offering in years, all emphasis on the groovy breakbeats, and both “Shine” and “Believe” utilize softly insistent guitar strumming in the vein of Lum’s earlier project, Love Spirals Downward, in addition to the warmer grooves and subtle jazz instrumentation that characterize much of his work with Bee. The end result is an album that’s at once a leap forward and a fond glance back; the duo could hardly have picked a better title than Future Past.
Included in Anji’s set is Lovespirals’ brand new track, “Try To Forget,” as well as her solo song, “Put Some Music On” (produced by Ryan Lum, of Lovespirals, btw…), along with several other cuts from her new 5 Years of Chillin’ compilation. In addition, she featured several recent Lovespirals remixes, including the winner of the “Feel So Good” remix competition held by Sony Acid Planet earlier this year. Also in the mix are 2 brand new Anji Bee collaborations; one with The Grooveblaster, and the other with Karmacoda and Beth Hirsch, as well as her recent collaboration with 7 Day Visa.
Properly Chilled was founded in January 2005. Dedicated to downtempo music and culture, their approach is a widely inclusive one, bringing together the sounds of nu jazz, broken beat, world fusion, dub, trip hop, deep house, jazzy hip hop, ambient electronic, idm, glitch, reggae, acid jazz, afrobeat, cosmic disco, dubstep and pretty much any other laid back child of electronic music.
Ryan and Anji return after a month’s hiatus to reveal all of the work they’ve secretly been up to in their Chillcuts studios. Its a little known fact that the Chillin’ with Lovespirals podcast turned 5 recently, but the fact that Anji’s podcast, The Chillcast, just turned 5 — due in large part to a new music compilation she just released. 5 Years Of Chillin’ is a 14 track, one hour plus collection of music that represents the overall vibe of Anji’s weekly show. A brand new, unreleased song by Lovespirals is featured, as well as a brand new single by Anji Bee. Listen to the show for complete details on the release, including a lot of backstory about the inspiration, creation, and completion of the album, as well as the various relationships the band have to each of the contributors. The show closes with Lovespirals’ new song, “Try To Forget.”
We are quite excited to share some brand new music with you! “Try to Forget ” — the first new song to be released by Lovespirals since their January 2010 album, Future Past — is featured on the brand new 5 Years of Chillin’ compilation. This 1 hour collection of chilled tunes celebrates the 5 year anniversary of The Chillcast With Anji Bee music podcast. In addition to the new Lovespirals track, this compilation also features the debut of Anji Bee’s new song, “Put Some Music On,” produced by Ryan Lum of Lovespirals.
So what are you waiting for? Download this entire album for FREE now on Bandcamp and enjoy!
The 5 Years of Chillin‘ various artist chillout music compilation is also available for free download via Chillcuts Digital Media on Soundcloud and Last.FM. Please leave comments if you enjoy the tunes — and be sure to re-post links for your friends to enjoy, too!
Lovespirals are wrapping up production on a new digital release featuring remixes of “Feel So Good” from their 2010 album, Future Past. For a sneak peek, check out the latest episode of The Chillcast, hosted and produced by Lovespirals vocalist, Anji Bee. Chillcast #255: Keep It Chill closes with an upbeat electropop mix by Electer, who previously won 2 Karmacoda video remix contests under the name “Bassic” on the Sony ACIDplanet site. Lovespirals plan to release the Feel So Good EP in conjunction with the 5 year anniversary of Bee’s podcast this March.
Listen to Chillcast #255:
[audio:http://m.podshow.com/media/142/episodes/270777/thechillcast-270777-02-24-2011.mp3]
