A greatest-hits disc after only four albums? Apparently, when you're as good as Love Spirals Downwards, you can get away with it--especially if you throw in a few remixes and rare tracks to make it worth your fans' while. ... more »Working its way backward through the band's career, Temporal provides a highlight reel of vocalist Suzanne Perry's ethereal musings and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Lum's moody atmospheres. And while it's perhaps not too much of a stretch to go from the 4AD-style bliss of early tracks such as "Mediterrenea" and "This Endris Night" to the heavenly drum and bass of later songs such as "Alicia" and "Ring," LSD have never left their core audience behind, most of whom would heed Perry's siren call even if she sang in a heavy-metal band. Cocteau Twins fans, the torch has been passed. --Steve Landau« less
A greatest-hits disc after only four albums? Apparently, when you're as good as Love Spirals Downwards, you can get away with it--especially if you throw in a few remixes and rare tracks to make it worth your fans' while. Working its way backward through the band's career, Temporal provides a highlight reel of vocalist Suzanne Perry's ethereal musings and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Lum's moody atmospheres. And while it's perhaps not too much of a stretch to go from the 4AD-style bliss of early tracks such as "Mediterrenea" and "This Endris Night" to the heavenly drum and bass of later songs such as "Alicia" and "Ring," LSD have never left their core audience behind, most of whom would heed Perry's siren call even if she sang in a heavy-metal band. Cocteau Twins fans, the torch has been passed. --Steve Landau
CD Reviews
A nice overview of a unique band
Anji Bee | Southern California | 01/05/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Love Spirals Downwards marked the new millenium with the release of 'Temporal', a collection of songs spanning their 8-year history on Projekt Records. From their hauntingly beautiful acoustic beginnings to their later atmospheric electronica sound, this compilation covers the entirety of LSD's career with 13 tracks arranged in groups of 3 songs from their 4 major recording periods.
'Temporal' begins at the end, with a set of remixes from their final studio album, 'Flux.' "Alicia" is a flamenco spiced drum 'n' bass tune with lovely acoustic guitar melodies provided by special guest, Rodney Rodriguez, of the Von Trapps. With the remix, Suzanne Perry's Spanish/nonsense-word vocals have been downplayed, while the rhythm pumped up, and ethereal pads are subsituted for the original analog keyboards. "Misunderstood" - a remix of "I'll Always Love You" - has been almost entirely revamped with zippy breakbeats and the addition of moody saxophone played by special guest, Doron Orenstein, of Monkey Bars. These 2 tracks are unavailable elsewhere.
Also included on the album are several songs from various compilations or EPs, such as the heartbreaking instrumental, "Amarillo", from the 'Sideways Forest CD-Single.' LSD's sole musician, Ryan Lum, is a master at extracting a maximum amount of emotion with a minimal guitar melody, and this composition of acoustic, electric and ebowed guitar is a masterpiece of subtle, melancholic beauty. "Asleep" is a near instrumental from the period between 'Ever' and 'Flux' which appeared on a small-run compilation by Precipice Recordings. This early attempt at drum 'n' bass production clearly shows the influence of Good Looking Records on Ryan's musical thinking. For vocals, he ran a sample of Suzanne backwards, lending a very strange effect to a simple, fairly upbeat track. Of course, there's always an undertone of sadness in LSD's songs, and "Asleep" is no exception.
There's also a live track from one of the rare performances given by the duo. A simple arrangement of Ryan's melancholy acoustic guitar and Suzanne's ephemereal reverb-laden vocals, this live rendition of "Subsequently" (a song from the 1994 album, 'Ardor') gives you a fair idea of the magic of their early days.
To fill out the ensemble, there's a nice array of tunes taken from each release -- not the songs I would have thought of as the "hits" but they are presumably Ryan's favories, since he compiled this collection. All in all, "Temporal" is 66 bliss-filled minutes lovingly selected as a body of work as unique as the journey of Love Spirals Downwards musical career.
For those who have never heard Love Spirals Downwards before and want some band comparions, let me offer the following: Everything But the Girl, Perfume Tree, Massive Attack, Siddal, Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and Mojave 3."
Whoa, trippy...
Patrick W. Moore | USA | 03/29/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Love Spirals Downward, what a great band, debuting in the early 90's their early form of "shoegazing" music, light acoustic guitars with angelic floating voices... set them apart from most of the artists that have debuted in the 90's. Their first release was Idylls, which is comparable to recent `Cranes' stuff, minus Alison Shaw's little girl voice. Vocalist Suzanne Perry's heaven sent vocal style is the greatest in current music. I mean that, without hesitation. Ryan Lum is the mastermind behind the music, the earlier stuff being flowing acoustic guitar moving to their last release Flux which is more drum and bass... it's all good. Flux took a while for me to warm up to, having moved from the shoegazing to the trip-hop sound was interesting and has proven to be a positive move as Flux is their best selling album to date.Temporal, the newest release is as says on the album "a collection of music past and present". It is a collection of what they view as their "best of", along with some new, previously unreleased songs. If you have never heard anything by this group, buy this as your first one. It is a great collection of mood music. The fact that it starts with their most recent music and moves back to the older stuff is a nice change from other "best of" collections. Especially since they don't really have any singles... which are never really a bands best, the odds are high that if you like the stuff on this album, you will love the actual releases. It starts off with a remixed track from `Flux', a beautiful song that starts with Suzanne's voice only, and then flows into a nice near-dance number. I've never been a fan of the `remix' for an artist's collection, but I have to make an exception here. The remixes are done well and actually compliment the original. The best thing about this is the previously unreleased stuff, it alone is worth the price of the disc. As I mentioned before, this is a great introductory CD for LSD. Ambient, Dance, mood music, it's all there, an all around great investment."
Subtle pleasantries.
Adam Carroll | 09/30/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This CD slows my world down. Or maybe it just softens the edges a little; I'm not really sure which. The soft, echoing guitars and vocals are conducive to writing; even after the CD's finished playing, the melodies remain in my head, helping to coax new descriptions out of the things around me.Two paws up for the track arrangement, too; the drum 'n bass tracks in the beginning transition very nicely into the more ethereal-sounding tracks at the end. All together, the 13 tracks are more like one big, lavender, 66-minute mass. Kind of like the album cover, now that I think about it.I'd compare Love Spirals Downwards to the Cocteau Twins, since that's what I'm most reminded of here, but I don't really see the point. LSD are similar, sure, but by no means derivative. Take my advice and appreciate this album for what it alone is... oh yeah, and for what it'll do to your mind. Trust me; you'll like it."
SOMETHING SO GOOD
Monica Dinek | Copenhagen, Denmark | 04/13/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Temporal is the only album by LSD I have ever heard, but not the only one I will ever buy. I discovered the band some weeks ago, and I haven't heard much of other music lately, because their music steals all my attention. I wouldn't be much wrong if I say they remind me a bit of Cocteau Twins and the moods I get in when I listen to them. I am looking forward to buy the other records they made, and in meanwhile I will enjoy this one."
Beautiful, dreamy melodies
Clarissa | Ontario, California | 06/03/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Founded by Ryan Lum, Love Spirals Downwards has been around since the early 90s. They're sadly no longer together but he's still signed to projekt records with a band called Lovespirals with new singer Anji Bee. I believe their sound is somewhat similar to this but I can't say for sure... 'Temporal' is LSD's final release and is a collection of music past & present. I'd been wanting to check this group out for a while but have always been leery of anything ambient based as it tends to lull me to sleep, and not because it's soothing but because it's boring! This, however, has altered my seemingly narrow perception. While this is a compiled album of previously available material by LSD there's also a sparse amount of new tracks as well as exclusive remixes included here on their "greatest hits". I've never heard the originals before but on here "Alicia" is mostly downtempo drum&bass and "Misunderstood (I'll Always Love You)" is purely trip hop with some jazzy saxophones sounding in from time to time (those are the two remixes provided here). Some tracks are supported by electronics with lilting sirens spiraling upwards while others are slower paced, relying more on acoustic instruments. But, no matter what, the textures never lose the lush, full and sumptuous sound they permeate that is always rich in atmosphere. In the early years Suzanne Perry was the main vocalist for LSD but later on her sister Kristen Perry took over and so I'm assuming that both voices can be heard throughout this record. However, I'm not 100% clear on that fact for nowhere inside the booklet does it specify who sings what. Every song is amazing, though, and as a whole it flows rather nicely and the beats are, in a word, heavenly. LSD kinda reminds me of a more toned down version of Chandeen with a dreamier, female-fronted likeness of Lycia thrown in for good measure. I therefore recommend this to anyone who wants hypnotic soundscapes and ethereal voices that neither overpower nor serve as background accents to entrance and relax you, but without driving you to boredom. {I truly love them all but my favorite tracks include: "Ring", "Asleep", "Madras", "Above The Lone", and "Depression Glass"}"
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1