Projekt has paired up with Hot Topic for a special holiday CD, A Dark Noel: The Very Best of Excelsis, which includes Love Spirals Downwards’ 1995 recording of Dr. Seuss’ “Welcome Christmas” from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Lovespirals‘ cover of John Denver’s “Aspenglow”. This CD is sold at the budget price of $3.98 from Hot Topic stores nationwide. Read a review of the comp by MusicTap.
Plans are underway for us to do a few shows in and around Mexico City next month. It is unnerving waiting until the last moment like this, but our manager assures us it is happening. Right now, talk is that we’ll do Mexico City, Guanajuato, and now possibly Morelia and Leon, as well. The show dates fall between the 12th and 15th so far. Looks like it will be a full week!
Projekt is releasing another new budget priced compilation! The Arbitrary Width of Shadows features Lovespirals’ song “Dejame,” alongside tracks from black tape for a blue girl, Audra, Mira, Voltaire, Unto Ashes, More Syphilitica, and more. This 13-tracks CD retails exclusively at Borders, with over 380 locations nationwide.
The Arbitrary Width of Shadows is our second budget-priced compilation cd created exclusively for the Borders Chain. 2001’s within this infinite ocean was a huge success, selling through its limited edition pressing within five months. Borders was so pleased, that they asked us to create a follow-up compilation, intended to introduce the music of the Projekt label to their customers. Of course, it’s also a great CD for the hardcore Projekt fans, capturing some of our best music together on one disc.
— Projekt.com
Projekt just released a new budget priced compilation for Hot Topic. Called Projekt:Gothic, it features Lovespirals’ song, “Swollen Sea,” as well as tracks from Audra, Mira, Voltaire, Attrition, This Ascension, Lycia, and more.
Through March 11, 2003, Projekt: Gothic will sell exclusively at Hot Topic, with over 425 locations nationwide. It’s available on the counter at all of their stores across the nation. After March 11th, Hot Topic will be joined by Borders and all other cool stores large and small with this title.
— Projekt.com
Lovespirals have returned from their West Coast mini tour with Mira, and are busy scheduling additional dates for this year. So far, Los Angeles has been added for October 2nd at the Knitting Factory. The band plans to include saxist, Doron Orenstein, for this date.
DJ Victoria Star, of KZSC in Santa Cruz, CA wrote the following review of the first show date:
San Francisco Projekt fans were given a spectacular treat last night when artists Mira and Lovespirals joined together for an evening of musical bliss at The Pound.Once again changing musical directions, Anji Bee and Ryan Lum presented their lush new sound as a taunting and swanky invitation to sing along. Taking the stage with a smile that never left her face, Anji’s vocal mastery was particularly poignant on new tracks “Oh So Long” and “Swollen Sea.”
In Music We Trust called Mira and Lovespirals “the sexiest concert bill of 2002” and had this to say in their review of the show at Portland’s Paris Theatre:
Next came the technical difficulties but delicious music of Lovespirals. While guitarist Ryan Lum and singer Anji Bee clearly seemed displeased with how their show was going, it did not stop them from presenting a lovely display of some obvious hard work. Closing out the set with a few jazz numbers, the audience weaved back and forth with Bee as she appeared as a nightclub chanteuse a little out of her element. Bee acknowledged this by remarking, “We don’t know how Mira does it. They’ve got like twelve shows left. This is only our third, and we’re like, ‘O, we want to go home.'” Nevertheless, Lovespirals presented their new material, which is absolutely marvelous, and sparked some interest.
Photographer Adam Michaud sent in these great photos from our Portland concert.
During their time in Portland, Ryan and Anji also did their first ever in-studio radio interview with DJ Carolee of A Strange Choice of Favorite on KPSU. The duo also performed a short acoustic set live on-air.
Lovespirals will join fellow Projekt artists, Mira, this summer for several shows along the West Coast! These shows will be a little different from our ProjekFest show as our tenor sax player, Doron, won’t be joining Anji and I. I hope you’ll make it out to see us if you live near any of these stops. It’s pretty rare that we do shows, and there’s no telling when we’ll be back.
TOUR DATES:
The Pound in San Francisco, CA on Wed August 21st
The Paris Theater in Portland, OR on Augst 23rd
Paradox Theatre in Seattle, WA on August 24th
Interview by Shaun Hamilton
Chain D.L.K.: So what lead to the breakup of the Love Spirals Downwards project and the birth of Lovespirals? Was it the evolvement of the music or from other factors?
Anji: It’s just been a natural progression, really. The first song created by Ryan and I that came out on CD was a [drum and bass] remix of “Bittersweet” for Claire Voyant, which they [Metropolis Records] credited on the album as “Love Spirals Downwards.” That was in late 1999, early 2000, I forget exactly. By 1999 we had already recorded a few songs, so when Temporal was being assembled, we discussed including one or two of our songs with the older LSD stuff. 1999-2000 was a very transitional time. We weren’t totally sure where we were headed yet. Ryan was still very immersed in the DJ scene then, so the stuff we were working on was 10 minute dance tracks – pretty unsuitable as album material. It wasn’t really until 2001 that things clicked into place for us, as far as the album goes.
Chain D.L.K.:How did you two meet and start working on music together?
Anji: We met a few times at different places in LA. We first started talking at a little Projekt party, which both of our bands were invited to. Then we got to know each other more through a series of appearances he made on KUCI, for both my radio show and other DJs’ shows out there. One afternoon he had me come over to his studio and he showed me a few new songs he was working on. One of those became the instrumental, “Beatitude,” and the other eventually turned into “Love Survives”. The first song he had me do vocals on, though, was the club track, “Ecstatic”, which just has a little “oooh ahhh” sample. There were a lot of starts and stops when we first started working together; we were really plagued by computer problems and personal issues.
Continue reading Chain DLK Webzine Interviews Anji BeeLovespirals and Audra will each perform a short acoustic set at Ipso Facto counteron September 29th. Both bands will also be on hand to sign autographs and meet fans. This is a free show! Ipso Facto | 517 N. Harbor Blvd, Fullerton, CA . | 714.525.7865
Ryan and Anji will reunite with tenor saxist, Doron Orenstein, to perform at the Knitting Factory on October 2nd. If you missed out on ProjektFest, now is your chance to see Lovespirals in trio form. Just $8 for entry, show starts at 9pm. Knitting Factory | 7021 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood, CA | 323-463-0204
Opus Zine has reviewed the Blisscent 1 compilation CD on their website. I was just going to post the bit about Lovespirals’ track, “He Calls Me,” however it only make sense in the context of the commentary preceding:
Alcian Blue’s track just feels a bit clumsy. The recording quality feels lacking, resulting in the whole song sounding rather flat. Unlike Skywave, where the lo-fi recording actually adds to the over noise assault, here it just makes what might otherwise be a decent song rather plodding.
However, there are no such complaints with Lovespirals’ “He Calls Me.” Formerly know as Love Spirals Downwards, Lovespirals features a new vocalist and a slightly different direction. Gone are drum and bliss textures of Flux, instead hinting back the group’s earlier releases, such as Ardor. Spanish-tinged acoustic guitar work and light drums provide the perfect setting for Anji’s beautiful vocals. Even more interestingly, the lyrics point at the song’s more spiritual origins: “His voice is like a song/I hear the melodies/So I learn them, write them down/So I can play them/Let them understand you are in everything we do/Show them your glory.”
— Jason Moore, Opus Zine
Jianda Johnson interviewed Anji Bee for a feature article on the Women of Mp3.com Station.
JIANDA: How did you get into music, how long have you been making it, and when did you join Lovespirals?
ANJI: I’d say that I first got into music through my dad. One of my earliest memories is circling around the coffee table to “Here Comes the Sun,” when I was barely able to walk. I started singing very early, doing school productions from Pre-School on. Shortly out of High School I got invovled with different garage bands, doing gigs and recording 4 track demos. Strangely, I really always wanted to be a guitarist, but I’ve just never been very adept at it! I did play guitar in an industrial noise rock band for awhile, but it was a struggle for me. I played percussion in another band around that time too. It’s funny to think about those old bands now, in comparison to my work with Lovespirals. Speaking of Lovespirals, I began working with Ryan in early 1999.
JIANDA: Can you please explain the difference between Lovespirals and Love Spirals Downwards?
ANJI: When Ryan and I began working in 1999 on Drum ‘n’ Bass tunes, he was in a transitional period, unsure if he wanted to make another listening album or start releasing 12″ vinyl instead. At that time, we weren’t sure if our stuff was going to be released as Love Spirals Downwards or as some kind of side project. We were just recording songs and pressing dubplates for him to spin in his DJ sets, not sending them around to labels or trying to get them released. Then I made those tracks available online through mp3.com and folks started contacting us to include stuff on compilations, so by now all of them have been released somewhere or other, which is really cool. But I digress… It’s tremendously hard to explain exactly where or how things changed between Love Spirals Downwards and Lovespirals, because it was all just a natural progression.
Continue reading The Women of Mp3.com Interview
