Description
With the cosmic-disco-drenched Burning Feeling, Steve Moore's high-gloss Lovelock project conjured one of the most slept-on albums of last decade. Chunky, neon-lit synths and crashing, spacey guitars ride chugging Italo basslines and smooth-yet-shuddering drums to thrilling effect. Finally appearing on vinyl for the first time, ten years after its original release. This is the sound of "Big Room Smooth". Be With Records was well aware of Lovelock by way of the rather ace "Don't Turn Away (From My Love)" from the 2008 compilation Cosmic Balearic Beats on Eskimo Recordings. According to Steve "Lovelock is an outlet for me to explore my more pop-oriented ideas, whether it's disco, lounge, soft rock or whatever I try next. When I started the project in 2006, I was listening to a lot of Italo disco so it felt natural to explore those sounds." As well as the spacier end of disco, Steve was also listening to Laura Brannigan, Abba/Frida, S.O.S. Band, Alan Parsons and Jan Hammer at the time. Burning Feeling was written and recorded in Nyack, NY between 2006 and 2008. A couple of tracks made it onto some compilations and, after a few years of failed negotiations, the album eventually came out on CD in 2012 on Internasjonal, the label run by Prins Thomas and Kai Fraeger. The monumental, MDMA-rich title track opens the album and sets the mood. The fizzing, dramatic synth riff refrain intoxicates, before cavernous slo-mo house drums enter the party to devastating effect. It's followed by the hypnotic, prog-Balearic mood piece "The Fog". Dizzying synths never detract from the overall smoothness; this is vital, classy cosmic disco. Pink Floyd-on-pingers languid space-funk makes up "Don't Turn Away (From My Love)". The beautiful, faintly creepy synth-prog of "South Beach Sunrise" closes out the first LP with swathes of lush keys and horns. The synth nexus that is "New Age Of Christ" provides a melodic take on soundtrack Italo. "Maybe Tonight" bubbles up through, swirling into a spiraling blast of sun-kissed, feel-good Balearo-pop. Swarming synth melodies, warm vocals and earnest guitar solos make it one of the album's most immediate hits. The mysterious "Barbara" graces the enormous power-pop-meets-Italo jam "Love Reaction" before closer "Deco District" luxuriates in what Matt Anniss described as a "grandiose combination of poodle-perm campery and rush-inducing arpeggiated synthesizer lines." Steve worked with Be With's audio engineer Simon Francis to remaster Burning Feeling from the original mixes especially for this double vinyl release. Steve also commissioned new artwork from designer Kane Banner.