Rival Consoles – Kid Velo

CD/DOWNLOAD available directly from Erased Tapes:
http://erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP031

EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD via iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/kid-velo/id442699933

SOUNDCLOUD showing their love & support for this viral:
http://soundcloud.tumblr.com/post/7010903232/soundcloud-spotted-glastonbury-bandrx-gomez-buddy
http://soundcloud.tumblr.com/post/6752857680/rival-consoles


RIVAL CONSOLES – KID VELO
The New Album. Released Track by Track. Week after Week.
11.4.-27.6. 2011


London-based purveyor of intelligent dance music Ryan L. West aka RIVAL CONSOLES returns with his sophomore album KID VELO, released track by track over the course of 11 weeks. Every Monday will see a new album track being streamed exclusively from just one online portal connected to one exclusive online store, before going global on Fridays. ‘With brains supposedly adapting to online networks and attention spans reduced to 140 characters at a time, this is bite-sized music for a bite-sized world’, Erased Tapes label founder Robert Raths explains. The campaign will kick off on April 11 and cumulate in the official album release on June 27, 2011. Here’s the viral to date:


TRACK 1: KID VELO – EXCLUSIVE STREAM via Drowned In Sound on April 11:
http://drownedinsound.com/news/4142427-listen--rival-consoles-kid-velo

'There are a few labels which you can just trust. Erased Tapes is possibly one of them. One of their lot in Rival Consoles is doing something relatively novel and streaming a new track from his forthcoming record Kid Velo in various places across the internet over the next 11 weeks. We've got the VERY FIRST track and it's actually really, really good' – Drowned In Sound

TRACK 2: INTO THE HEART I – EXCLUSIVE STREAM via The Line Of Best Fit on April 18:
http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2011/04/premiere-rival-consoles-into-the-heart-song-of-the-day-237

'Rival Consoles is the geekiest band name of all time. It is lucky, then, that the music is so consistently entertaining. His second album, Kid Velo, is being released one track at a time over the course of 11 weeks, courtesy of TLOBF favourites Erased Tapes. We are very happy to have ‘Into The Heart’, the second track from that record, as today’s exclusive Song Of The Day' – The Line Of Best Fit

'Exuberant electro burner' – Boomkat

TRACK 3: S.P.K.R.S – EXCLUSIVE STREAM via The 405 on April 26:
http://thefourohfive.com/articles/6152

'It's bloody HUGE. Can you imagine hearing this at full blast? It's so intense it would probably blow your eyebrows off' – The 405

TRACK 4: AMIGA – EXCLUSIVE STREAM via Mixmag on May 3.
http://www.mixmag.net/2011/05/03/exclusive-rival-consoles-track/

‘Purveyor of intelligent and consistently entertaining dance music’ - Mixmag

TRACK 5: I LEFT THE PARTY – PREMIERED via The Royal Channel as part of the Big Dance Royal Flashmob outside of Buckingham Palace on May 9; aired on BBC News, SKY News, The Telegraph Online, The Sun Online and other media nationwide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAZ-HRepK_g
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8502591/Buckingham-Palace-tourists-surprised-by-royal-flashmob.html

'The dancers clicked their fingers, stamped their feet and shook their bodies to a mix of funky beats' – The Telegraph

TRACK 6: VOS - EXCLUSIVE STREAM via The Milk Factory on May 16:
http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/st/2011/05/exclusive-track-preview-rival-consoles-vos/

‘A monster electronic tune, dirty-sounding and utterly excellent’ – The Milk Factory

TRACK 7: EVE - EXCLUSIVE STREAM via Motor.de on May 23:
http://www.motor.de/news/11417354;rival_consoles_eve_brandneuer_track_von_chiptuner_rival_consoles_im_stream.html?sc=f4f83a03fc94ff5a2ce4d7c6a335e3dd

'A moving beat and rave skeleton spiked with plenty 8-bit tunes and slick samples'

TRACK 8: GUITARI - EXCLUSIVE STREAM via ClashMusic on May 31:
http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/track-of-the-day-315-rival-consoles

'Releasing cult album after cult album, Erased Tapes tread the line between electronic and acoustic. Blurring edges, the label have confirmed a special plan for the latest release from Rival Consoles. Steeped in the language of intelligent dance music, the producer has manipulated a series of guitar loops into something quite beautiful' Track Of The Day

TRACK 9: ROSENTHAL ROAD – EXCLUSIVE STREAM via The Middle Boop Mag on June 6:
http://www.middleboopmag.com/music/music-news/exclusive-rival-consoles-album-track-rosenthal-road-and-interview

'Rosenthal Road is a gem of a track' Single Of The Week – The Middle Boop Mag

TRACK 10: INTO THE HEART II - EXCLUSIVE STREAM via Drowned In Sound on June 13:
http://drownedinsound.com/news/4142901-listen--stream-new-rival-consoles-into-the-heart-ii

TRACK 11: AFTER ED. - EXCLUSIVE FULL ALBUM STREAM via SoundCloud on June 21:
http://soundcloud.tumblr.com/post/6752857680/rival-consoles

Watch the video for AFTER ED. here: http://www.vimeo.com/17849285


OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE:

Whilst album opener KID VELO can simply be described as ‘a heavy beast that has a lot of pop running through its veins’, Ryan L. West, the man behind RIVAL CONSOLES strives to humanise and at the same time emphasise entirely computerised sounds to defy categorisation in modern electronic music. According to West this record was all about creating genuine emotions with a synthetic set of sounds. ‘Even though the sounds that have been used are entirely synthetic, like a lot of computer game music, they can create moments of human emotion – moments of hope. I really love it when electronic music can do this to you’.

With track names that could be straight out of a comic strip, the atmosphere of this album reminds of video game sagas such as Zelda or Final Fantasy. KID VELO makes the perfect fictional super hero with EVE being his fragile yet powerful female counterpart and VOS as the classic antagonist. Tracks like s.p.k.r.s. evoke images of an evil, corrupt police force, lurking deep in the futuristic suburbs. Surrounded by studio equipment, this record possibly is a result of spending more time with speakers than people.

It doesn’t take much to see some parallels between the fictional character KID VELO and its creator. Born in November 10th 1985, Ryan L. West grew up in the small city of Leicester in the midlands of England. Fascinated by sound from an early age, Ryan chose to dedicate his time to studying, experimenting with and producing sound at De Montfort University Leicester. ‘The outro track AFTER ED. stands for After Education, because it just reminds me of that crap feeling you get when you finish uni. You don't know what the hell you are going to do with yourself.’

Rival Consoles combines hard-hitting beats with catchy pop melodies, classical theory with dance. No wonder he released a split 12” with label mate Ólafur Arnalds’ minimal-techno outfit Kiasmos. There is more to this 25 year-old than meets the eye, for those not content with 4/4 beat dance floor stormers; West is fast establishing himself as both a sound designer and programmer. Having repeatedly performed at the Tate Britain Museum in London, where he drew over 2000 visitors into his unpredictable, yet detailed sound drawings ‘…using self-created sound manipulation tools in MAX/MSP and Super Collider’. New York based composer Nico Muhly and UK producer Jon Hopkins are amongst the first to receive West’s trademark remixes.

Previously having performed alongside Venetian Snares, Luke Vibert and Wisp, summer 2011 will see first appearances at festivals.
After a short promo stint to Berlin, Rival Consoles will return to London for an album launch show at The Nest in Dalston on June 23.
Ticket Link: http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_london&query=detail&event=444497&interface

'I like them all actually, they are all different. Stand out tunes are S.P.K.R.S. and I Left The Party' – Rob Booth, Electronic Explorations



Press reactions to the debut album ‘IO’:

'A massive slice of jagged grandiosity...kicks you in the nuts. 'IO' is a party record even snobs can enjoy.' (7/10) – NME

'A new sulphuric wave is about to wash over our dancing forms and reduce us to boogieing bones - and Ryan West, aka Rival Consoles - is riding it on an acid-proof surfboard… leading the crusade against tired welterweight club rhythms' – DJ MAG Fantastic Four Feature

'West is a nascent IDM hero on IO' (9/10) – XLR8R

'Writhes in a field of its own, twitching and buzzing like little else... One of the best releases of its kind this year' – CLASH


ALBUM CREDITS:

Dedicated to Rebecca Molloy
All music composed by Ryan L. West
Artwork designed by Robert Raths
Photograph by Rebecca Molloy
Mastered by Nils Frahm at
Durton Studio Berlin

℗ © 2011 Erased Tapes Records Ltd. All rights reserved.

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More info:
http://erasedtapes.com/kidvelo