Ryan Lee West (born November 10, 1985), known by his stage name Rival Consoles, is a British electronic musician,[1] living in London. All of his albums and EPs have been released by Erased Tapes Records.
Biography
West was born in Leicester.[2] He learned to play guitar in his youth, but later switched to electronic production, studying music technology at De Montfort University.[2] He initially used the stage name Aparatec, releasing an EP of material under that name in 2007. His first release as Rival Consoles was issued later in 2007 by Erased Tapes Records, which has released all of his albums and EPs.
Rival Consoles' style is a combination of ambient, shoegaze, minimal techno and cinematic—often created with analogue synths, pedals and degraded processes. Pitchfork described Rival Consoles' sound as "high-brow, avant-garde electronic music in the vein of Jon Hopkins and Nils Frahm".[4]
West has also scored work for contemporary dance such as Alexander Whitley's Overflow[5] and has scored an episode of Netflix's Black Mirror ("Striking Vipers"). His track "Recovery" was used in a 2020 television commercial for Blue Dragon foods. Kid Velo was also used in adverts for William Hill Vegas between 2011 and 2014.
^Interviews, Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews &; Murray, Robin (1 August 2022). "Rival Consoles Unveils New Album 'Now Is' | News". Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews. Retrieved 2 August 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)