PRICE:
$32.00
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
Washington Park
FORMAT
LP

LABEL
CATALOG #
BEWITH 107LP BEWITH 107LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
2/17/2023

Steve Moore's Lovelock is back with Washington Park, a gorgeous suite of instrumental lounge music that can only be described as synth exotica. A real departure for Steve, this is a more mellow, soothing sound and can be regarded as Lovelock's response to these dystopian times. New York-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/film composer Steve Moore is probably best known for his synthesizer and bass guitar work as Zombi, together with Anthony Paterra. Yet his Lovelock alias has been quietly blowing minds and warming hearts for a decade plus now. His latest effort, Washington Park, was not initially meant to be a Lovelock album. But after posting little snippets of his work, Steve had an epiphany that this could be the new Lovelock. Washington Park creeped out in a very low-key, early lockdown fashion and there wasn't much of a reaction. Gentle opener "It Means Love" grooves along in the laconic style, conjuring carousel innocence and complimented by dreamy, spiritual sax and syrupy synth strings over a digi-soul beats. Title-track "Washington Park" glides smoothly in much the same vein, almost like a slightly more acidic, squelchier version of the preceding track with more insistent organ. Swoon. Closing out Side A, steady ambient gem "We'll See" is all gorgeous, soft pads with plaintive guitar and organ giving way to soaring digital strings over that metronomic drum machine soul. The eerily brilliant "Seduction" is a track which starts like a minimalist slice of Tommy Guerrero-esque guitar and drum machine soul but soon takes on a more menacing bent as Steve leans into his long-held predilection for horror by creating a slow-mo haunted house jam. The tempo (and temperature) rises with "Center Square", a Latin rhythm section and a sensual sax rubbing up against hot and heavy organ and string action. To round things off, the ominous creeping groove of "Rhythm 77" feels like exotica-in-excelsis. Steve used all his old Roland beat boxes (CR-78, Rhythm 77 and Rhythm 330, Rhythm Arranger) plus a Chamberlin Rhythmate for all the percussion. Basslines were usually performed with his Moog Source or Minitaur and for pads and brass he used his Sequential Prophet 600 and Roland Juno 60. Strings came via a variety of old stringers -- Korg Polysix, Elka Rhapsody, Crumar Orchestrator, and Solina String Ensemble -- and he also used his Fender Strat and Yamaha Custom saxophone. Mastering for vinyl overseen by Simon Francis. Cut by Cicely Blaston of Alchemy Mastering at AIR Studios. Pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry.