Matt Rowe recently interviewed us for Music Tap. You can read an excerpt in our interviews section or view the the entire feature at musictap.net. It’s a nice little interview, so check it out when you have a chance!
All posts by ryan
Antheil coincidence
How odd! I just finished reading a book about George Antheil yesterday, only to see on Yahoo! News that his “Ballet Mecanique” is about to be performed – with the 16 baby grand pianos and various percussion mechanically controlled, as he originally wished. But the nutty composer called for a 152bpm performance, whereas — apparently — pianos can only be played at 138bpm by machine, and 120 by humans. Interesting…
Jazz Review reviews Free & Easy
Sheldon T. Nunn reviews Free & Easy
Lovespirals’ latest CD entitled, Free & Easy, continues a formula that has made the duo a recognizable force in smooth jazz arenas; however, much of their music cannot be classified under one umbrella or style. Collectively, Ryan and Anji can be surprisingly creative and inventive, especially on this latest release. One of the more promising components of Free & Easy is that is commercially viable. On previous efforts, Lovespirals have taken an eclectic approach to jazz, which has often left them lacking widespread appeal. Historically, they have drawn upon world, house, light and airy music to make their presence known, which has created a highly evolved level of crossover appeal.
With Ryan serving up a heaping helping of guitar, keyboards, bass, percussion and programming, Anji takes on the tasks of vocals and vocal arrangements. As independent artists and without the support of a major record label, the two have recorded Free & Easy on their own Chillcuts Label, which has given them the freedom and flexibility to be more adventuresome and creative.
Free & Easy is an album that pushes the envelope of enthused imaginative thought processes. Tracks such as “Trouble” and “Deep In My Soul” provide a dance feel, while a more laid back appeal occurs on tracks that include “Walk Away” and “Love Survives.” In the end, what comes together are nine tracks of nicely-crafted music. Anji and Ryan cover the gamut of pop melodies, R&B infused grooves as well as pop-oriented licks to make Free & Easy a good bet to chart on Internet radio stations, which is where much of Lovespirals’ popularity resides. Given a broader range of discovery commercially, Anji Bee and Ryan Lum are sure to not only surprise listeners, they will generate a cadre of new fans.
Comments disabled
We’ve been getting slammed by spammers in our blog comments lately. It’s been going on for awhile actually, but recently it has increased so much that it isn’t worth fighting anymore. Once more time is being spent trying to squelch blog comment spam than actually blogging, there is a problem. So we have disabled commenting for the time being. Sorry.
Rashomon
Last night we saw the movie Rashomon, director Kurosawa’s 1950 masterpiece. Damn that was good. Another one of those gems that has sneaked past me up until now. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who’s into movies that are a little different from the Hollywood mold, from then or now.
Ooo-ooh that smell
Man! Went into Ryan’s studio to do a little intro song for The Chillcast but the mixer was acting up. I noticed a weird smell, like plastic burning. Ryan said the mixer suddenly rebooted once, and shortly after telling me that, it just shut down completely. Great… We unplugged everything to take it into the shop, and when we pulled it up, the smell was coming from the side where the fuse is located, so I’m hoping that just blew. Cross your fingers for us!
Lovespirals Tunes on The Strand: Venice
The new webseries by Dan Myrick (of Blair Witch Project fame), The Strand: Venice includes tracks by Lovespirals in their
first and second episodes. The first season is about to be released on
DVD via strandvenice.com, where you can also check out “Love
Survives” on the site’s built-in audio player. The show features a great soundtrack overall, with a decidedly chill-out flavor.
Chillcast with Anji Bee
Good things are happening behind the scenes with my new Chillcast, so expect an announcement soon from me. For now, you can check out Chillcast Episode 2 via ourmedia.org. I put a link up on the newly redesigned www.chillcuts.com. Just click on the “chillcast” tab and there ya go!
Pop Stops for The Star reviews Free & Easy
John Evanstan reviews Free & Easy
The Southern California duo of Ryan Lum and Anji Bee bring to mind the cool, sensual jazz of Sade on their nine-track independent CD Free and Easy. They named their record label “Chillcuts” and that’s a perfect definition of their downbeat, sultry late-night sound.
Lum plays a sedate electric guitar and gently jazzy Rhodes piano to back up Bee as she croons and seduces at the microphone. It’s a deliciously soothing combination.
Lovespirals began as an outgrowth of Lum’s former band incarnation, Love Spirals Downwards, which sold more than 50,000 copies of four albums on Projekt Records in the mid-’90s. In 1999, Lum began working with a new lead vocalist in Bee, and changed the band name to Lovespirals to reflect the new sound and direction. The result is a duo that knows how to craft seductive vocal loungey jazz with cooly shifting electronic rhythms.
The new iMac
Ooh man would I love to get my hands on one of the new iMacs. I could see putting that extra power to use for designing the new album cover, not to mention doing podcasts, and maybe even a special vidcast. Mmm…. drool…
New Podcast Makes Announcements
The most recent episode of the Chillin’ with Lovespirals podcast announces a new single released to the Podsafe Music Network, where podcasters can download music freely and legally for use on their shows. The band also announces Anji Bee’s latest project for 2006. You’ll have to download Episode 11 to find out the details!
Chillin' off iTunes Store
Hmm… noticed that our podcast isn’t showing up on iTunes today. I wonder how long it’s been down? I wonder what happened? Bummer.