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More Flux news

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Today is Suzanne’s birthday! Happy Birthday Suzy!!!

The article on us in the November issue of Keyboard is out and I’m excited about us and Massive Attack sharing the same page. If you don’t have their latest, Mezzanine, get it! It’s my favorite release of the year.

Lots has been going on with the release of Flux, which continues its great run on sales and radio. If you still haven’t bought Flux yet (you’ve all got it by now right?), you should be able to find it at most stores including Tower, Virgin, and Borders. Plus, Flux is featured in Borders listening stations now until November 16.

There’s still no shows to announce as of yet. The good news is that Suzanne and I have now started rehearsing and working on music again, after a several month break that both of us needed after finishing Flux.

Band News, Interview

Fix Magazine #24, 1998

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Love Spirals Downwards – Constantly In A State Of Flux

By Daniel Bremmer

Love Spirals Downwards has always had a problem fitting in to any specific category. As on the first artists signed to Projekt, Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry have been lumped in the same ethereal category as label mates Black Tape for a Blue Gil and Lycia. “I think our music is somewhat melancholy. Some goths really get off on it, some don’t,” remarks Perry. A friend introduced the duo to Projekt, which at the time were a small Pasadena label which largely served to release label owner Sam Rosenthal’s band, Black Tape for a Blue Girl. “I’ve seen the piles of demos from bands that would give their left arm to be on Projekt, and we had never even heard of them. They were really small then, we were at the right place at the right time,” says Lum.

While the swirling guitars, dreamy female vocals, and lush atmospheric landscapes of their first three releases have not exactly clashed with other dark wave artists, the duo have certainly not considered themselves to be a goth band. Nowhere else has Love Spirals Downwards experienced the effects of being considered a goth band as when they perform live. With the exception of a few small shows, a majority of their performances have been promoted as goth shows. One recent example was ProjektFest 96, hosted by Coven 13 and billed as “An Evening of Gothic Music.” When remarking on Coven 13’s resident DJ, Jason Levitt’s rather unethereal and wholly uninspired teeny-bop top 40 set, Perry laughs and states that “He’ll play the same records next week, and the week after, and the week after that! As though he has not been playing them since 1985 or something? That’s pathetic. I’m embarrassed for those people.”

Continue reading Fix Magazine #24, 1998 →
Band News

Flux update

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Hello. Sorry for not updating the news for a little while; I’ve been away most of the summer and am finally back home. Lots has happened since the last update, the big news being the release of Flux a few weeks ago. We’ve been pleasantly overwhelmed with the great response that it’s receiving. Flux has been charting on the college radio charts and is even number 1 on several stations.

Flux has been selling great, better than all our previous releases. In mid September through mid November, it will be in listening stations in all the Borders stores. Flux is or will be in listening stations and on sale at many Virgin, Media Play, and Tower Records stores, as well. I’ve seen Flux at most places I’ve been to, so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding it (a nice change compared to when Ever was released).

For all you gearheads out there, we will be in the November issue of Keyboard magazine, which will be on sale in October. They did an interview with me while I was staying in in San Francisco last month. I talked about the gear and processes used in making Flux, while enjoying a pleasant dinner of Indian food with their writer Markkus Rovito.

We contributed the Flux track, ‘Nova,’ to Loraine, A KUCI 88.9 fm benefit compilation. Besides being a worthwhile double-cd benefit comp, it has some great tracks of ‘intelligent’ electronic music, with songs from Bassland, Simply Jeff, Uberzone, Gearwhore, THC, Robert Rich, Surface 10, and many others. It is a very cool limited edition compilation. For more information, see the Peach website at www.peachfuzz.net.

Thanks to everybody who has emailed us or wrote in our guestbook about enjoying Flux so much! I personally think Flux is our best release so far, and am surprised and happy to hear that so many of you think the same. Our website here has been redesigned too, as some of you may notice. I hope you like the new look. Also, be sure to check back here regularly for the latest info on what’s happening with us. A few shows are being talked about and I will post more info on those as soon as it becomes available.

And check out the new Massive Attack CD, it rocks!

Band News

Projekt ‘Flux’ Press Release & PR Photo

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Official Love Spirals Downwards ‘Flux‘ press release from Projekt Records:

As the name of their newest album implies, Love Spirals Downwards has continued their evolution with each new release. Comprised of Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry, the band was among the first generation of musicians to grow up with home recording studios. As technology became more sophisticated, so did their art. Now Lum and Perry use a full range of technical advances, including computers and digital audio recording. Their embrace of technology helped lead to their current dance/electronica base.

The mood of Love Spirals Downwards’ music, for all its aural and technological spectacle, is contemplative, drawing upon such eclectic inspirations as classical philosophy, Buddhism, mysticism, Spanish ode, and the distinctly American free verse of Jack Kerouac. This range of sources suggests something of the scope and spiritual embrace of their art.

Degreed in Philosophy and Psychology respectively, Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry’s musical collaboration as Love Spirals Downwards is both intrinsically thought-provoking and therapeutically relaxing. It is music which takes listeners beyond conditioned preconceptions, flowing into a space that is invitingly warm and boundless.

Continue reading Projekt ‘Flux’ Press Release & PR Photo →
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Ryan to guest DJ at KUCI

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Attention Southern California Fans:

Wednesday, July 22nd, 1998 8-10 pm: Ryan Lum, of Love Spirals Downwards, will Guest DJ for an hour on Space Disco For Fish Tacos (on KUCI 88.9 fm in Irvine, CA). He’ll be playing a bit off of his forthcoming Projekt release, Flux, in addition to some of the music that he draws inspiration from. Look for the LSD track ‘Nova’ on the forthcoming KUCI benefit CD, Loraine.

Band News

Recent News

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Hello. It’s been a few months since my last update. Lots has happened, and the big news is that our new album Flux is finished and mastered. Its release date, last time I checked, is July 21, 1998. I’ll be sure to keep you informed here if that gets changed.

In other news, we had a great time onstage and off at the Los Angeles Projekt Fest show this past March. Thanks to those in attendance for making it the funnest show we ever had. And also thanks to Andrew Pluta of Arcanta and Rodney Rodriguez of the Von Trapps for joining on percussion and guitar respectively for this show. We hope to do more shows with the four of us, but I should say here and now that we will not be doing any of the Projekt Festival shows later this summer.

We have a new song on a new compilation put out by Pat Ogle’s (formerly of Projekt) new label Precipice Recordings. Our song, “Asleep,” can only be found on this compilation and will not be on our new album. Projekt is distributing this disc, so you can order it direct from them by calling 1-800-CD-LASER.

Band News, Interview

Mean Streets on ProjektFest LA

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Mean Streets So Cal, March 1998, Volume VIII – Issue 9

PROJEKT FESTIVAL: One of the most dramatic and beautiful nights of music awaits you…

By Ned Raggett

About 2000 years ago. plus a few, the Ides of March proved to not be a pretty good day. At least for a balding fellow named Julius Caesar. However, that was Rome and two millennia away, not Los Angeles and the middle of this March.

At the El Rey Theatre on Sunday, March 15, the third Projekt Festival will be hosted for many an appreciative fan, likely providing one of the most dramatic and beautiful nights of music for years. Organized by Projekt main man Sam Rosenthal, the festival, previously held in the in the label’s headquarter city of Chicago, will feature two of Projekt’s flagship bands— Los Angeles’ own Love Spirals Downwards and Rosenthal’s group Black Tape for a Blue Girl — and Santa Barbara’s faith and the Muse (who though not on Projekt are closely associated with the label via Darkwave distribution). Tickets can currentIy be purchased via Los Angeles at Retail Slut on Melrose, in Orange County at Ipso Facto in Fullerton, and through Projekt at 1-800 CD-LASER. All very well, you say, but why should you care?

Simply put, quality, combined with a driving desire to steer away from an easy and obvious norm. Projekt has evolved throughout the 90s as the closest possible equivalent to the 80s glory days of England’s 4AD label — a record business dedicated not to the commercial quick kill but to an overall aesthetic of lush beauty in appearance and sound, shaded throughout with the dark emotional touches too easily summed up and dismissed as “goth.” While it’s no secret that Projekt and associated bands have been far too often seen as a goth label — Rosenthal has jokingly referred to himself as a crazy uncle of goth — in response to such charges in the past, while Faith and the Muse’s William Faith wears white make-up and haystacked black hair like a pro — the three bands featured each have their own specific style and much to offer to the open-minded listener willing to put aside clichéd descriptions in favor of the actual music itself.

Continue reading Mean Streets on ProjektFest LA →
Band News

L.A. Projekt Festival

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The Los Angeles show that I referred to earlier, as some of you may have figured out, is the Los Angeles Projekt Festival at the El Rey Theater on March 15. Check Projekt’s Live Page for the latest info and details. I haven’t mentioned it here until now because the details of the show were constantly changing. The original idea for the show was supposed to be just us and labelmates, Thanatos. Now Thanatos is not playing and the show has become the “L.A. Projekt Festival.” Some of you know that Suzanne and I are not exactly blissful about festival shows, so this will be our last festival performance and your last opportunity to see us at one. Later in the year we plan to get back to doing our own shows again when we do some touring.