Rival Consoles Howl

London-based electronic producer Ryan Lee West, better known as Rival Consoles, has announced his third studio album, entitled Howl.

Foremost a guitarist, growing up listening to rock rather than club music, West continues to strive towards finding a more personal balance between music for home listening and larger spaces. The title track was inspired by the howl-like tones he developed by running synths through guitar pedals.

"By slowly drifting the pitch through distortion and delays, the result sounded like vocal cries–something which was perfect for the song and this inspired me to take on a darker set of tones across the whole album. It was made over the past few years, inspired by capturing small performances on synths, touring with some of my musical heroes, playing with feedback when I should have been catching a train, sampling my voice in unexpected conditions and recording textures in different countries.”

The album explores a wide range of emotions; from the dissonance eruptions and primal rhythms in '"Howl", to the mournful improvisations of "3 Laments", which features a sample of his own voice. Alongside his performances on Moog, Prophet, tape delay and guitar, West enlisted the help of drummer Fabian Prynn for "Low" and cellist Peter Gregson for "Walls", both long-time collaborators of Erased Tapes peers Douglas Dare and Michael Price.

"This album features a lot of my own recordings, rather than simply using samples that I have sitting on my computer. This gives the album a more personal feeling, which is very important to me because I think we live in a time where there is just so much recorded material out there, and accessible at a click of a button, that the joy of recording your own drum sounds, your own percussion, your own claps, seems redundant–but it’s not! That should be a priority because its often more interesting and makes you choose a different creative path."

01 Howl
02 Ghosting
03 Afterglow
04 Pre
05 Walls
06 Low
07 3 Laments
08 Morning Vox
09 Looming