London producer and musician Ryan Lee West operates as Rival Consoles. His music mixes a playful sense of experimentation with the rigidity of electronica. The risks taken here are big ones, but the tunes always seem focused and less willfully obscure than they'd be in other hands. His new record, Articulation, drops on Erased Tapes on Friday and it's a highlight of this week's spate of new releases.
"Vibrations on a String" finds bright keyboard figures washing over beats which are insistent but carefully placed, with the overall effect here a calming one, while "Forwardism" is anchored around the heavy percussive elements, with the skittering keyboard adding punctuation to the piece. Elsewhere, the title cut flies around, a flurry of ideas shot out from a few synthesizer hooks, while the elegant "Still Here" is minimalist beauty unfurled in front of a listener. With album closer "Sudden Awareness of Now", West enters the realm of some of the old Bill Nelson soundtrack releases, with the use of ambient noise at the start a nice touch even as the catchy riff bounces around the top of this thing.
Rival Consoles makes this brand of electronica accessible and easy to embrace. Austere but warm, playful but precise, the hooks here are carefully considered and then launched forward with genuine emotion. The soundtrack to whatever inner journey you need to take, Articulation is superbly realized electronic music.
Articulation will be out on Friday via Erased Tapes.
More details on Rival Consoles via the official website.
[Photo: Rival Consoles Bandcamp]