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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 Steve was posting little snippets of his work on Instagram and people started asking him: "is this new Lovelock?" It was at this point that Steve had an epiphany, of sorts. "It occurred to me that Lovelock can be whatever I want it to be. So yeah, maybe this new lounge/exotica record is, in fact, Lovelock."

Washington Park creeped out in a very low-key, early lockdown fashion and there wasn't much of a reaction. Says Steve, "I just self-released it and all my usual suspects were down with it, but it didn't really make it outside of my own circle." Yet many of the Balearic heads in Europe were indeed on it and Be With were most certainly listening. So, when we struck a deal to do the vinyl version of Burning Feeling, we couldn't resist asking about Washington Park.

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.

Flip for the eerily brilliant "Seduction", 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. Steamy! To round things off, the ominous creeping groove of "Rhythm 77" feels like exotica-in-excelsis.

Washington Park was recorded over the first few months of the pandemic, during the spring of 2020, against the backdrop of his kids being out of school which meant daily walks and bike rides through Washington Park in Albany. It was during these moments of family activity and gentle movements, trying to make sense of the chaos engulfing his world, that Steve formed the ideas that led to this album. To make it manifest, he 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.

Steve is a huge fan of exotica and that's clearly where this album is coming from. The likes of Martin Denny, Les Baxter and Henry Mancini can all be discerned here. As Steve explained, "I spent a lot of time listening to that stuff in the 90s and I figured it was time to let those influences show." You're going to be glad he did.

Mastering for the Washington Park vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis before being cut by Cicely Blaston of Alchemy Mastering at AIR Studios and pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry.

Don Tiki, the leaders of exotica's turn-of-the-21st-century revival, bring their soundtrack for a Technicolor Polynesian pop paradise to Aloha Got Soul in 2021.

Each LP includes a pair of custom Don Tiki 3D glasses.

Don Tiki debuted from Honolulu in 1997 with the album, 'The Forbidden Sounds of Don Tiki', featuring the legendary Martin Denny in what would become one of his final recordings before his passing. The group, led by Fluid Floyd (Lloyd Kandell) and Perry Coma (Kit Ebersbach), draws inspiration from the original masters of the exotica sound, Denny, Arthur Lyman and Les Baxter, to bring such evocative music into the 21st century.

Following 'The Forbidden Sound', Don Tiki's recordings further deepened the group's reverence for and exploration of the poly-rhythmic, mid-century sounds pioneered by Denny, Baxter, and Lyman. Those albums, originally available on compact disc, include 'Skinny Dip with Don Tiki' (2001), 'South of the Boudoir' (2009), 'Don Tiki's Hot Lava Holiday Songs' (2012), and a remix album entitled 'Adulterated' (2004).

'Hot Like Lava' collects the group's top instrumentals for an exhilarating, paradisiacal ride through the world of tiki subculture on lava-colored vinyl.

About Don Tiki:

"Tiki supergroup Don Tiki knows the world, the subculture of tiki…it really doesn’t get much better than this!” ~ Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations

"Don Tiki is providing the soundtrack for this Technicolor projection of a Polynesian pop paradise." ~ Sven Kirsten/The Book of Tiki

"A great band from Hawaii, friends of ours...keeping the spirit of Martin Denny alive." ~ Jimmy Buffett

Don Tiki is:

Kit Ebersbach – keyboards, bandleader

Lloyd Kandell – producer, congenial host
Lopaka Colon - congas, bongo, bird calls
Hai Jung - bass, vocals
Sherry Shaoling – vocals, dancer
Abe Lagrimas, Jr. – vibraphone, percussion
Ryoko Oka - keyboards
Bonny B. - drums
Tim Mayer – reeds
Violetta Beretta – dancer, costumer, vocals

New album from Anthony Ferraro aka Astronauts, etc, who for most of his music career, served as Toro y Moi's keyboardist, with this album 'Living In Symbol' being his debut solo record.

Sonically, the album weaves its influences into an alien drapery. 'The Border' introduces Latin psychedelia to a groove à la David Axelrod, setting the stage for a vocal performance that manages to be equal parts Lee Hazlewood and HAL 9000. On 'The Room', a Borgesian story gets dressed up in an eerily graceful string arrangement reminiscent of Les Baxter. And 'Who I Talk To' nods to George Harrison in a soft rocking arrangement that supports Ferraro's ghostly croon.
Living In Symbol Is An Ode To Ambiguity, The Future, And Saying 'so Long' To The Known. A Member Of The Last Generation To Experience Life Before Total Interconnectedness, Anthony Ferraro (digitally Known As Tony Peppers) Aims To Be A Bridge Between Two Very Different Realities.

The Spirit Of Change Is Especially Pronounced In California's Bay Area, Where Technologies Dawn And Disruption Is The Noblest Goal. Critics And Advocates Of All Stripes Write Columns And Fill Talk Radio Hours With Their Analyses Of The Times. Ferraro Is A Funny Case: A Sometimes Luddite With A Romantic Streak, He Would Probably Be A Doomsayer If It Weren't For His Being Situated In The Middle Of It All. As It Happens, He Ended Up Writing A Generative Music Algorithm That Sold On Auction At The Smithsonian For $5,000.

His Take On Tomorrow Is Nonjudgmental, Meditative, Imaginative. It Keeps Away From Unqualified Hope Or Outright Alarmism, Choosing Instead To Embrace The Indeterminacy As Food For Dreaming.

Ferraro's Friendship With Chaz Bear, Who Co-produced The Album, Began Modestly Enough: Bear Walked Into The Coffee Shop Where Ferraro Worked While Attending Uc Berkeley. The Two Became Friends, And When Ferraro Graduated The Following Summer, He Signed On As Touring Keyboardist For Toro Y Moi. Musical Bonds Were Forged Over The Next Few Years, And The Pair Began Collaborating On What Would Become Living In Symbol.

Living In Symbol Is A Series Of Rooms, A Choose-your-own-tomorrow Story. Step In And Peer Through Its Open Doors.