Kid Velo is like Daft Punk getting deep down and dirty with Clark. If the first Rival Consoles album, IO, released two years ago, was like a rollercoaster ride through the last twenty years of techno, acid, electronica and house, it appears that it was nowhere near enough to satisfy mastermind Ryan Lee West’s seemingly insatiable appetite for fun. For with Kid Velo, he turns the dance floor into a vibrant battleground where his heavy artillery fire glitter balls for the entire duration.
Right from the onset of the title track, which opens the festivities, the tone for the rest of the album is set. Continue Reading »
Ryan West is gearing up for the release of the second Rival Consoles album, Kid Velo, on the ever-excellent Erased Tapes in early June, and to whet your appetite, there is one new track revealed exclusively on a site each week. And this week, we’ve got Vos, the sixth track from Kid Velo, and it is a bit of a monster electronic tune, dirty-sounding, and utterly excellent! The album is out on 27 June.
The album’s launch party will take place at The Nest, Dalston, on 23 June, with Frog Pocket and Deadfader (Get tickets here)
Twelve months compiled into just twenty albums. From the thousands of records released each year, it is difficult to get even a handful on the site, and even more difficult to decide which ones were the best of the lot. This is however the twenty albums that have marked 2009 for themilkfactory.
Rival Consoles first appeared two years ago with a first EP released on London-based Erased Tapes. Since, Ryan Lee West he has delivered two more EPs spanning quite a wide sound world, from Aphex-like abstract drum’n’bass to razor-sharp techno. His debut album, released on Erased Tapes once again, expands greatly on the latter by collecting eleven thumping techno cuts with enough edges to last a lifetime. We took this opportunity to talk to the man about how the album came together, how he uses beats against melody, what it feels like to have his album out in the open and which console is the one. Continue Reading »
Behind Rival Consoles is Ryan Lee West, a relative new comer hailing from Leicester, who, in the space of just three EPs for London-based Erased Tapes, has confidently established himself as one of the most exciting new British talents. While his first two EPs, The Decadent, released two years ago, and Helvetica, which appeared earlier this year, showed West in a variety of moods, placing him loosely between Aphex Twin and μ-ziq, his latest delivery, coming as a split EP with Icelandic classical composer Ólafur Arnalds, operating under his techno alter ego Kiasmos, showcased a much more focused, sharp and dance floor orientated sound.
IO continues on the tone of the EP by collecting all three tracks featured on it plus another eight cuts of a similar calibre. Continue Reading »
One of the most iconic type faces of our times, Helvetica celebrated its fiftieth anniversary a couple of years ago amidst a wide range of events across Europe, including the ABC123 EP by To Rococo Rot. Created in 1957 by designer Max Miedinger, Helvetica has since infiltrated just about every form of visual communication and become one of the most ubiquitous and versatile fonts, used equally successfully on public signage, record covers, advertising and art.
Versatile is an adjective that can also be applied to Ryan Lee West’s Rival Consoles, whose debut release, The Decadent EP, was published on Erased Tapes at the end of 2007. Released as a four track seven inch single and digital EP, Helvetica is a hell of an eclectic release. Continue Reading »
RIVAL CONSOLES
The Decadent EP
ERATP5
Erased Tapes 2007
06 Tracks. 20mins23secs
Format: 10″ / Digital
Rival Consoles is the project of twenty-one year old Leicester-based Ryan Lee West. Although this is his first outing as Rival Consoles, West has previously released an EP, already on Erased Tapes, in early 2007 under his Aparatec moniker. Claiming influences stretching from Debussy to Autechre, it is no surprise to find the Decadent EP combining orchestral and electronic textures into tight and angular pieces.
With The Decadent EP, West takes the listener on a journey ranging from the twisted electro of Seventeen and the elegant orchestral swathes of Juncture to the incendiary rush of Kitsch, the warm synthetic waves of The Decadent and the soothing tones of Vari. Continue Reading »
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