Rival Consoles

Overflow

Image of Rival Consoles - Overflow

About this item

Rival Consoles returns with a resonant and explorative soundscape of original music, composed for renowned choreographer Alexander Whitley’s contemporary dance production Overflow.

Exploring themes of the human and emotional consequences of life surrounded by data, the piece echoes the concept of social media, advertising, marketing companies and political factions exploiting our data to gain wealth, political advantage and sow division. Key reading for the project was based around the contemporary philosophical work Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han.

“The piece opens with Monster which 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,” states West.

I Like features the mapping of data from dancer Tia Hockey’s personal monologue, which allows chords to be heard - but only based on the activity of her voice, drawing attention to things happening behind the curtain, invisible systems, algorithms. The album also features the previously released standalone slice of euphoria, Pulses of Information — described by UK mag Clash as “typically entrancing, Pulses of Information seems to encourage a form of internal dialogue, between our inner and outer selves.”

Overflow was premiered by the Alexander Whitley Dance Company in May 2021 at the Sadler’s Wells in London and is scheduled to tour through theatres in Europe in spring 2022. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I've been a fan of Ryan Lee West's Rival Consoles project for a good few years now ('Howl' on Erased Tapes still gets played weekly on my stereo at home), and it's safe to say that while the sound is a lot more abrasive than those early days, it's as rich and as fulfilling a listen as ever. 'Overflow' is a wonderfully dynamic, beautifully achieved juxtaposition of melody and grit.

TRACK LISTING

1. Monster
2. I Like
3. Hands
4. Pulses Of Information
5. Noise Call And Response I
6. Overflow
7. The Cloud Oracle
8. Tension In The Cloud
9. Noise Call And Response II
10. Scanning
11. Flow State
12. Touches Everything
13. Making Sense Of It All

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