MP3 Love Spirals Downwards - Flux

"Flux" is ambient-tinged electronica featuring ethereal female vocals and melodious guitar work, creating a relaxing, yet envigorating dreamscape of sound to lose yourself in.

9 MP3 Songs
ELECTRONIC: Pop Crossover, ELECTRONIC: Trip Hop



Details:
Love Spirals Downwards was begun in the late 80's by multi-instrumentalist, Ryan Lum, but didn't truly take form until the addition of vocalist, Suzanne Perry, in 1991. Over their 8 year history, Love Spirals Downwards released 4 albums; Idylls (1992), Ardor (1994), Ever (1996), and Flux (1998), 1 single, Sideways Forest (1996), and 1 retrospective collection Temporal (2000), incorporating the styles of ethereal rock, world music, ambient/new age, and electronica to create a sound uniquely their own.

LSD were part of the first generation of bands to grow up with home recording studios. As technology became more sophisticated, so did their music. By 1997, band founder and sole musician, Ryan Lum, acquired access to a full range of technological advances, including computers and digital audio recording. His embrace of technology helped lead to this 4th album's electronica base. Inspired by the drum 'n' bass style of LTJ Bukem, Spring Heel Jack, and Everything But the Girl, Lum developed startling new material that combined the band's trademark heavenly female vocals and ether-bliss guitars with trip hop, drum 'n' bass and dubby electronica beats. This album marked a distinct turning point in Lum's songwriting and brought the band closer to a contemporary pop sound than previous efforts.

Vocally, longtime collaborator Suzanne Perry fronted 3 nicely poppy cuts and provided sample food for 3 others, while Kristen Perry made her first official appearance on 2 very strong cuts (one of which, "Psyche," was used by the WB Network show, Dawson's Creek, in 2001), and Jennifer Ryan Fuller's 1994 performance was called upon for a remake of "Sunset Bell." The world flavor of days gone by really only popped up in "Alicia," featuring nice acoustic flamenco licks by Von Trapps guitarist, Rodney Rodriguez, as well as the strangely evocative Spanish/nonsene vocals of S. Perry. With it's hip, upbeat electronica sound, 'Flux' undeniably distanced the band from the ethereal darkwave genre which they'd been so closely tied to in their past. Critics have compared the sound of Flux to Mono, Sneaker Pimps, and Hooverphonic.

In 1999, Lum remixed two of his favorite tracks from Flux ("I'll Always Love You" and "Alicia") which were later released on the post-mortem CD, Temporal: A Collection of Music Past & Present.