Yesterday saw the release of Rival Consoles‘ new album Overflow. It follows 2018’s Articulation and was originally composed as a soundscape for a dance production of the same name by choreographer Alexander Whitley. Overflow ties into themes of the human and emotional impact of our current digital life, “echoing the concept of social media, advertising, marketing companies and political factions exploiting our data to gain wealth, political advantage and sow division.”

Earlier in the week, Rival Consoles shared a video to accompany lead single ‘Monster’. Speaking about the track, Ryan Lee West, the man behind Rival Consoles, explained it “has a kind of drunken madness to it, highly repetitive to mirror the repetitive nature of how we as humans engage with technology such as social media. It’s sometimes edging towards chaos but yet always returning back to the same starting point, but eventually giving way to exhaustion. I wanted to create a bold opening piece for Overflow.”

Dan Medhurst directed the video and you can watch it below.

Overflow is out now through Erased Tapes.

Following 2018’s Persona, Rival Consoles is releasing a new full-length album later this month. Entitled Articulation, the album is named after Gyorgy Ligeti’s classic electronic composition Artikulation and its accompanying non-traditional graphic score. Unlike previous albums, Ryan Lee West, the London musician and producer behind Rival Consoles, encompassed the creative conception of the album through a visual way of thinking. West “drew structures, shapes and patterns by hand to try and find new ways of thinking about music”, explains the press release, “giving himself a way to problem-solve away from the computer.”

After sharing the title track, Rival Consoles has offered another preview of the album in the form of ‘Vibrations on a String’. He had this to say about it:

“’Vibrations on a String’ was one of the earliest pieces I made for the record. The title is a direct reference to the behaviour of the main synth: I was trying to mimic playing a guitar string both softly and aggressively. I think a part of me is often trying to mimic the physical world with synths. There is something mindful about observing things and making sense of them, and once you try to recreate something in a different medium it feels like there are new opportunities to explore.”

Listen to ‘Vibrations on a String’ below and grab Articulation when it’s out on July 31st through Erased Tapes.

Earlier this month, Rival Consoles aka Ryan Lee West announced the follow-up to last Autumn’s acclaimed full-length album Howl. Entitled Night Melody, the upcoming 6-song record spans 34 minutes of West’s most personal and intimate work to date, as the press release explains, portraying “a man reeling from the ashes of the break-up of a 13-year relationship with his partner”. Speaking about it, West had this to say:

“I found myself, in a silent home, with the days getting dark very early. I’ve never before in my life been affected by the lack of light so much. I just remember it always being night time. I would either make music into the night, go out drinking with friends, or go to parties and dance into the early hours, every day, week after week, month after month, until eventually the days became brighter again.

This record is very personal to me and I hope it offers something for other people, as it helped me to make it and to listen to it. Almost every synth line was recorded intuitively, without perfection but with a lot of intention and expression. I’m not interested in making something sad or making something happy. I want music to be bittersweet, to be more complex, like life – containing moments of vibrant colour and hope, as much as darkness and sadness.”

Night Melody will see the light of day on August 5th via Erased Tapes. Ahead of it, Rival Consoles is offering the first wonderful and enigmatic taste from it, ‘Lone’. Listen to it now.