LOVESPIRALS: Free & Easy

Lovespirals

Free & Easy

© 2005 Ryan Lum & Anji Bee (BMI) (837101090254)

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Smooth as silk downtempo, deep house, and jazzy rock-infused chill out with a dreamy, sensual vibe featuring seductive female vocals, soulful guitar, groovy Rhodes piano, and a dash or two of sexy sax.

tracks

1 Free and Easy
2 Hand in Hand
3 Deep in My Soul
4 Walk Away
5 Habitual
6 Trouble
7 Abide
8 Love Survives
9 Sandcastles

notes

Lovespirals' sophomore release, "Free & Easy", is the culmination of this So Cal duo's 3-year exploration fusing myriad musical interests into a satisfyingly smooth sound they refer to as Electro-Acoustic Pop. While "Windblown Kiss" cleverly disguised Lovespirals' digital recording techniques with its focus on organic sounds and more traditional songwriting styles, "Free & Easy" embraces the bands electronic origins, offering a balanced blend of elements from their earlier Dance oriented material as well as their more Rock based Pop offerings.

Every track on "Free & Easy" has its own unique feel; the title track and album opener, "Free and Easy", is laid back Morcheeba-esque Downtempo flavored with old school R&B stylings, including melodious Rhodes piano and Wah guitar. "Hand in Hand" takes an earlier Jazz Step single, slows it down to a relaxed Liquid Funk pace, then builds it up with heartbreakingly sweet vocal harmonies, a light jazzy mix of acoustic and electric guitars, and a smatter of saxophone by special guest musician, Doron Orenstein. "Deep in my Soul" -- the funkiest of the bunch -- is an upbeat Deep House track featuring soulful vocals and gritty Wah work, ending on a spiritual note with soaring Hammond organ chords. The album takes another unexpected turn with, "Habitual", whose sparse arrangement and hushed tone recalls some of the late 60's - early 70's music that inspires the band. Album closer, "Sandcastles", further amplifies this retro Rock influence in the form of an extended guitar jam breakdown and dramatic Gospel style closing.

Throughout this 43-minute collection of electro-acoustic Downtempo, Deep House, and jazzy-yet-rock-infused Chill Out, Lovespirals traverse many genres while maintaining a recognizably dreamy, sensual vibe courtesy of the smooth, soulful guitar and Rhodes piano of Ryan Lum, enhanced by the seductive vocals and romantic lyrics of Anji Bee.

BACKGROUND/BIOGRAPHY:

Lovespirals began in 1999 as an outgrowth of multi-instrumentalist Ryan Lum's previous band incarnation, Love Spirals Downwards. Following the release of his 10,000+ selling crossover Electronica/Ethereal Rock breakthrough, "Flux", Lum began working as a DJ and dance track producer, collaborating with vocalist Anji Bee, and members of Subliminal Records duo, Monkey Bars -- Doron Orenstein and Gabriel D. Vine -- on a string of atmospheric Jazz Step Drum 'n' Bass and Downtempo tunes released on comps like "Chill Out in the City" and "Chill Out Lounge Vol. 2".

2002 brought the release of Lovespirals' first full-length album, "Windblown Kiss", which found the duo of Lum and Bee experimenting with Rock, Folk, and World influenced songwriting, in addition to Jazz, for a very organic feeling, though electronically created, sound. Well received, Jazz Review's Lee Prosser proclaimed Lum "a master of guitar," while Music Tap's Matt Rowe ethused of Bee, "shockingly beautiful and sultry vocals... erotically charged."

2005 finds Lovespirals' marrying their earlier dance elements to their subsequent rock pop sound, combining their favorite aspects of every genre - those most beautiful, haunting or groovy - to create their own special blend of Electronica, Jazz, Blues, Soul and Rock on their sophomore follow-up "Free & Easy". The interplay of Bee's sensual vocals and Lum's emotive guitar playing illustrate their love of melody and harmony in songcraft, something all too often missing in electronica music.

reviews

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  • Need to Relax?
    author: Zack Daggy

    This album is truly fantastic! Ryan Lum and Anji Bee are simply stunning together. These two are quite possibly the greatest musical duo of our time. With sensual vocals and a groove that's sure to melt away the roughest of days, Free & Easy is a must have album in any collection.

  • exelent
    author: abel gonzalez

    is exelent

  • Showcases all the reasons that they should be this period's hip duo.
    author: Matt Rowe, MusicTap

    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. Anji Bee possesses a voice of honey, and a natural element that adds colour and flame to songs, exploring realms of intensities in varying degrees. With 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. "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 new album is easy on the soul
    author: Tome Wilson

    Free & Easy is the official rebirth album from West Coast legends Ryan Lum and Anji Bee. Three years after jumping from the gothic-based Projekt Music label, Lovespirals has finally grown some roots. Lum's eclectic musical talents and mixing skills set Free & Easy on fire, while Bee's vocal poetry cool it down with tunes best suited for the vinyl and headphones crowd. If you're new to Lovespirals, Free & Easy won't disappoint. The 9 tunes spun into this album run through the veins of downtempo (as the "easy" title suggests) to the heart of jazz, and end up in your soul. Take my word for it. Free & Easy is worth the trip.

  • Music Download Editor's Pick for Trip Hop
    author: MusicDownload.Com

    The smooth grooves conjure comparisons to Portishead and Everything But the Girl. Combining jazzy torch-song vocal stylings with modern trip-hop sounds and rhythms, Lovespirals craft an infectious and exotic down-tempo sound that you might hear playing in an upscale New York club or Parisian underground lounge.

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