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You are here: Home / Culture / Music / Albums / RIVAL CONSOLES’ sonic social commentary fails to take off on OVERFLOW

RIVAL CONSOLES’ sonic social commentary fails to take off on OVERFLOW

December 3, 2021 Category: Albums, Reviews
Rival Consoles, Overflow - credit Özge Cöne
Rival Consoles - credit Özge Cöne
Rival Consoles - Overflow
Rival Consoles – Overflow

RIVAL CONSOLES

Overflow (Erased Tapes)

Overflow is Ryan Lee West’s seventh album as Rival Consoles and was composed for a contemporary dance performance by Alexander Whitley. Both the choreography and the album attempt to explore the way data, in particular, our data as generated on social media is used by advertisers, politicians, and other nefarious actors to divide and control us.

RELATED: ‘UK drum’n’bass mainstay Turno makes two Welsh appearances this December: The Attic in Swansea and The Vaults in Cardiff Bay.’

While the performance of Overflow may be a powerful rebuke to the all-seeing algorithms that drive our digital lives, Overflow the album, as a standing alone work, isn’t. Instead, it feels like a loose collection of caustic, claustrophobic electronic soundscapes that never really go anywhere, aside from the gothic Salem-like flourishes of Touches Everything and the stuttering I Like.

Overflow uses repetition and monotony as a critique of the way we use social media, tapping away on our latest doomscroll, and while this is ideologically interesting and relevant, it doesn’t lend itself to much of a musical experience.

words SAM EASTERBROOK

KEEP READING: ‘A fleeting, finite live performance by Will Gregory’s Moog Ensemble in Cardiff Bay’s WMC leaves Adam Williams with much to digest.’

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About Noel Gardner

Noel is the listings, reviews, music and books editor at Buzz and has been doing some or all of these things here since the days of dial-up internet. He was raised in Cornwall, lives in Cardiff and that is more or less all he has ever known.
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Tag: alexander whitley, buzz album review, erased tapes, Özge Cöne, rival consoles, sam easterbrook

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