London-based musician and producer Ryan Lee West, aka Rival Consoles, creates driving, experimental electronic music that makes synthesisers sound human. His consistent desire to create a more organic, living sound, sees him forming pieces that capture a sense of songwriting behind the machines.<\/p>\n
\u2018Now Is\u2019 marks a new chapter in an ongoing quest for refinement and evolution. More playful and melodic, the album draws from much experimentation in minimalist songwriting and seamlessly blends synthesisers and acoustic instruments. \u201cThere are some pieces that are influenced quite strongly by the isolation and anxiety of these times. There are also pieces which are more optimistic and vibrant, which I think is a consistent attitude of my records, as I want art to express many aspects of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the elevating arrangements of \u2018Beginnings\u2019 and motorik beats of \u2018World Turns\u2019, to the isolation of \u2018Frontiers\u2019, influenced by the barren landscapes of Iceland, Rival Consoles\u2019 eighth studio album subtly morphs and evolves. \u201cThe title of the record \u2018Now Is\u2019 interests me because it is the beginning of a statement, but it is incomplete. I like art that is open and suggestive of ideas even if they are inspired by very specific things. With my previous record \u2018Overflow\u2019 being very dark, heavy and almost dystopian, I wanted to escape into a different world with this music and ended up creating a record which is a lot more colourful and euphoric.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the sonic \u2018Vision of Self\u2019, West looked to create the kind of movement and colour a string section in an orchestra would construct, but with synthesisers. \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of synergy between the two worlds. I wanted to create a hypnotic journey, where the synths and sounds weave in and out of each other, so you get lost in the music and don\u2019t know where one sound starts or another ends.\u201d This \u201cjourney\u201d West refers to is symbiotic of the way he has approached music throughout a progressive career \u2013 an ongoing project that is never static and always moving forward.<\/p>\n
A sense of euphoria is reached with the pulsating title track which bursts into colour like the appearance of the summer sun, while \u2018Echoes\u2019 is a vivid exploration of rhythm and sound for summer nights. The track starts with a dense collage of modular synths, fragmented metallic tones, broken sounding drums and a downcast melodic synth line. \u201cThis is a piece where the main melody has been in my head for a long time and was just waiting to come out. I kind of think of it as the sonic equivalent to an impressionist painting in that I wanted to explore the sensation of lots of small layers of different colours and textures that are constantly moving around each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rival Consoles is set to appear at festivals across Europe this summer, with headline shows expected to follow in the autumn.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":582089,"template":"","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[12362],"product_tag":[32264],"giftcard-category":[],"musicartist":[33260],"musiclabel":[18854],"musicstyle":[37935,37955,38000,38017],"distributormusic":[33259],"musicyear":[],"musiccountry":[39487],"weekmusic":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-582088","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-out-of-stock","7":"product_tag-discogs","8":"musicartist-rival-consoles","9":"musiclabel-erased-tapes-records","10":"musicstyle-electronic","11":"musicstyle-house","12":"musicstyle-pop","13":"musicstyle-synth-pop","14":"distributormusic-bigwax","15":"musiccountry-uk","17":"first","18":"outofstock","19":"featured","20":"taxable","21":"shipping-taxable","22":"purchasable","23":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/582088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"giftcard-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/giftcard-category?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"musicartist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/musicartist?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"musiclabel","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/musiclabel?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"musicstyle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/musicstyle?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"distributormusic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/distributormusic?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"musicyear","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/musicyear?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"musiccountry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/musiccountry?post=582088"},{"taxonomy":"weekmusic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yoyaku.io\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/weekmusic?post=582088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}