Rival Consoles
Written by gzabriel on Tuesday, 29 of September , 2009 at 3:49 pm
Ryan Lee West’s music interested me before I even listened to it for 3 reasons. 1. He lists his ranges as Autechre to Daft Punk. 2. He performs using self programmed Max/MSP and SuperCollider patches. 3. His name is “Rival Consoles” and that gets you instant nostalgia points.
Needless to say, dude had the odds stacked in his favor when it came time to listen to his music. But, and let me use this as an example for any marketing/promotion any artists may employ to get their name out, when you’re billing yourself as a Max/MSP using, Tate Museum playing, Aphex Twin comparison drawing electronic musician, do not make the song you send as the taster, the most derivative and straight forward song on the album. Disregarding “1985″ for a moment (which in fairness is a stomping dance track, just not the most imaginative and representative one,) his debut album IO is full of squiggly, squelchy, glitchy, quirky fun that offers one both the chance to listen for the careful tweaking and twiddling sown into the production of the tracks, as well as rock out to the warehouse sized, chest pounding rhythms layed down by Mr. West. For me, Rival Consoles is at his most successful when finding the balance between something tweaky and acid, and something throbbing and techno, and he finds that balance a lot. With the state of dance music perpetually seeming to be on the decline, it’s nice to see someone who artfully treads the line between pushing boundaries and innovation, as well as keeping true with the tried and tested methods applied to make generations of ravers and partygoers get on the floor and dance. Oh and the album has really cool cover and sleeve art and is available to buy on Erased Tapes’ website.
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Category: New Music
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