The work of Rival Consoles, AKA London-based musician and producer Ryan Lee West, has varied over its decade-and-a-half lifespan, working at the intersection of the human and technological to explore what is lost and gained as the two overlap. Early releases took inspiration from impressionist and electronic artists alike, culminating in an inventive and sometimes harsh blend of IDM and classical arrangements, and each subsequent release has refined this into increasingly elegant and careful styles.
Latest album Now Is, out now via Erased Tapes, represents the most concise, controlled Rival Consoles release to date. Back in September we introduced the record with single ‘World Turns‘, a track which offered a glimpse into the precision and structure with which West crafts his blended digital and acoustic soundscapes. “There’s a certain minimalism to the Rival Consoles sound, even if the tag doesn’t quite do justice to the detail of the songs,” we wrote in our preview. “A sense of clarity developed via a central repetition… Minimalism in the way of fine machinery. An elegant coherence to design.”
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1163555637 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2399133026]
The summary encapsulates the intentions of the record. It sets out to explore the full spectrum of minimalism and the moods which can result, from anxious isolation to playful curiosity and everything in between. Moreover, it attempts to convey how such moods shift and evolve across time. Latest single ‘Vision of Self’ is perhaps the best representation. A song which not only lives up to its title in conjuring interior spaces, but also explores how such things change.
“The title of the music reflects this sense ‘what is the self?'” West explains. “It is both knowable and unknowable, it is always changing as we get older and as we pass through experiences, our relationship with ourselves, with others, with nature, dreams, love, hurt, desire, repair etc. I like the dream-like nature of thinking about this and how electronic music can echo that dream-like quality in an abstract yet identifiable way.” The song is supported by an animated video by María Medem, which helps to push further into these ideas and refine the Rival Consoles style.
“This piece is important to me because it is both repetitive but is also always changing in a deceptive way,” West continues. “There is something dreamlike about the waves of colour that come and go, overlap and weave around each other. I love it when drama emerges out of non-dramatic things, so I spent a long time writing this piece of music and slowly letting it reach a point where that made sense, and letting it create its own little world.”
Now Is is out via Erased Tapes and you can get it from Bandcamp.
