Rival Consoles – Overflow
Overflow by Rival Consoles (alias Ryan Lee West) was originally composed for a dance production of the same name created by choreographer Alexander Whitley at the renowned Sadler’s Wells Theatre in 2019. Due to pandemic restrictions the performances came to a hault. They will hopefully be resume performing in 2022. As the dance piece the album Overflow examines our life in the age of Big Data – that being said, when I initially listened to this album I was unaware of the background of his album. Thus, I will not refer to Ryan Lee West’s sociological comment or try to adopt my writing to it, I will stick to my initial understanding of the music and how I perceived it.
Rival Consoles’ music can create some fearful sensation. For instance, the track „Monster” sets off with a pulsating and repetitive deep sound as if you have discovered something extraordinary. Maybe you do not know if further steps will turn out to be risky or safe - but you go on either way out of curiosity or being fully captivated. The same structure is applicable to „Hands”: Obtaining its deep profoundness, it sounds like a cautious walk - a walk through some wide open space but with less gravity. Jingly sounds produce enlightening and gripping tension.
„Touches Everything” falls into the same pattern, however, it highlights the darkest set of mood on the album. It contains a dark pounding bassline combined with high pitched shrilling synths where a dystopian feeling becomes realest.
Additionally, there is another side to Rival Consoles’ musical approach. His tracks also transmit a moving sense of cheerfulness and confidence. Listening to „Pulses of Information”, in my imagination I see pulses of molecules and enlightening colours that emerge through the sounds of reverberating staccato synths who seem to drift back and forth to one another. A similar sensation, yet more floaty and with a vivid pattern, occurs in „Flow State” as it is packed with small but multi-facetted fast-moving elements. Right in the middle of the course of the track, a determined bass will turn the track around into a darker dimension, thus representing a mix of both approaches explained above – on the one hand the unsettledness and dangerous tension and on the other hand the cheerful and encouraging elements.
Third, there is also a contemplative side of his music - melancholic and romantic in equal parts. For „I Like” he uses shreds of words as the main essence. The few words of a field recording, where a voice mumbles ‘I like, and they were like, It’s like, I mean it’s like, like when’ get torn apart throughout the course of the track. Even through the content gets muddled more and more, it still comes along with something meditative and not at all irritating as you might think at first.
With „Noise Call and Response I” he lets tenacious sounds flow in together. Considering the slowness it lets you perceive each element spatially. To me it literally sounds like you can inspect the sound physically.
It turns out that Overflow strongly speaks to me on a visual level as it enables me to imagine shapes that are in motion. You might perceive the music as something spatial and mentally float around through the music or move along with it.
Listen to Overflow on Spotify:
