''Howl'' is the third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by British

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

ian Ryan Lee West, performed under his stage name

Rival Consoles Ryan Lee West, known by his stage name Rival Consoles, is a British electronic musician, living in London. All of his albums and EPs have been released by Erased Tapes Records. Biography West was born in Leicester. He learned to play guitar in ...

. It was released on 16 October 2015, by

Erased Tapes Records Erased Tapes Records is a London-based independent record label focusing on releasing avant-garde and experimental electronic music. History The record company was established by Robert Raths in early 2007 in London, with the release of Ryan L ...

Critical reception

''Howl'' was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 80 based on 9 reviews. Aggregator ''Album of the Year'' gave the release a 75 out of 100 based on a critical consensus of 12 reviews. Daryl Keating of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'' wrote: "Howl is a well-crafted structure, built on the foundation laid by its predecessors. It's certainly the pinnacle of West's career so far, and up there for electronic album highlight of year." He also explained: "Every note, beat and chord progression is chosen carefully and played with purpose in order to draw genuine feeling out of these cold electronics. The result is a vast, thoughtful record that leaves a deep impression in its wake Reef Younis of ''

Loud and Quiet ''Loud and Quiet'' is a British bi-monthly music magazine that focuses on new music from underground indie, alternative, electronic and hip hop artists. History and profile The magazine was founded in January 2005 by Stuart Stubbs as a home-print ...

'' explained: "Textural and tempered, it's a third album that has more in common with Jon Hopkins and James Holden's droning electronica but there's still plenty in play for 'Howl' to stand in the exalted ambient company of Erased Tapes labelmates like Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds."

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians * Ryan Lee West – primary artist, producer * Peter Gregson – cello * Fabian Prynn – drums Production * Naweed – mastering

References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Erased Tapes Records albums