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Virtual Self is the debut extended play (EP) by American electronic music producer Porter Robinson under the alias Virtual Self, released on November 29, 2017 through an eponymous record label. After releasing his debut studio album Worlds (2014), Robinson suffered with depression and struggled to maintain its sound or work on a follow-up. He then started plotting the Virtual Self project, an alias with its visuals and sound inspired by the early 2000s. He became "obsessed" with this idea, using electronic music from that time and Internet webpages from the period as sources of inspiration. Virtual Self's visuals present cryptic messages and a mysterious atmosphere.

Two singles were released: "Eon Break" and "Ghost Voices"; the latter was later nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. After releasing the EP, Robinson toured as Virtual Self starting on December 2017, and later in 2018 during the UTOPiA SySTEM tour.

Background

In the early 2010s, Porter Robinson was known for his "aggressive" electro and complextro sound, with releases such as the 2010 hit "Say My Name" and the 2011 EP Spitfire. Robinson released his debut studio album, Worlds, in August 2014. This was a departure from that sound; Worlds was credited as " usher in a welcoming environment for softer, dreamier electronic music". After this release, Robinson felt like he had discovered his identity, and that he could keep producing the album's sound. However, he found himself unable to do that, stating that Worlds became something for him to resist. He felt he was under "a lot of pressure" to release something similar to a follow-up album, but he couldn't produce anything "inspiring" or "good".

In 2015, he fell into depression. He claims to have produced a hundred demos for what would be a follow-up to Worlds that year, which he described as "the music of a person who was depressed and uninspired and scared and unhappy". Later that year, he started plotting the Virtual Self project. In 2016, Robinson released "Shelter", a collab with Madeon; Robinson said that it "went really well" and, considering that Madeon "was making all of his new music that is unbelievably good", he decided to "compete with that", but going "in this complete other direction". In 2017, Robinson moved to London to work on the Virtual Self project.

Concept and inspiration

Robinson's main inspiration for the Virtual Self project, including its sound and design, was the early 2000s. This was the period where Robinson discovered electronic music via rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and Beatmania; DDR was what motivated Robinson to produce music in the first place. The Virtual Self project is "deeply rooted in nostalgia", and Robinson wanted to help define how people remembered the early 2000s: "I want to help revitalize and bring those things to the forefront. I want to be one of the people who defines nostalgia for that time period."

Robinson stated that the project was him on "peak obsessiveness"; retrospectively, he commented that this obsession made him do something he "shouldn't do", which was "spend a whole lot of time curating this project that had what I thought was very little commercial appeal". In particular, he became "obsessed" with the "overall vibe" of the early 2000s which was present in The Matrix (1999), DeviantArt visuals, forum signatures and rhythm game backgrounds. Robinson wanted to combine the idea of "cyber, sensibility, technology" from that time, which he described as "grunge, kind of like Linkin Park or t.A.T.u.; this sort of Eastern European vibe", with "the sense of magic", which he described as Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star Online (2000). With the help of The Wayback Machine, Robinson spent three years revisiting forums and websites he frequented in that period, which helped him compose "a mood board of how Virtual Self should look and sound." However, Robinson said that Virtual Self is "not purely an homage", as he's not trying to recreate something specific but rather his memories and feelings surrounding them.

Porter Robinson described the music under his own name as his most "authentic and sincere soul," while, according to Billboard, Virtual Self is about "shattering his own habits, perhaps even his image". He said that Virtual Self could be seen as his "attempt at alienating people". According to Robinson, "Virtual Self is the furthest thing from an attempt to please my fans or make what they want. I wanted Virtual Self to be something that a good chunk of Porter fans might reject. That's a sign of success." He also stated that he wants to separate Porter Robinson music from Virtual Self music, and he doesn't play both in the same shows; Robinson wanted Virtual Self "to live in its own world here" instead of being a part of "Porter Robinson".

Virtual Self is represented by two characters created by Robinson, Pathselector and technic-Angel. In the EP, the white-dressed, gold-masked Pathselector represents tracks "Ghost Voices" and "a.i.ngel (Become God)", while technic-Angel is a fair-skinned, dark-cloaked harbinger that represents tracks "Particle Arts", "Key" and "Eon Break". Pathselector's songs were described by Robinson as "neo-trance", being mid-tempo, "less hardcore-influenced and strictly trancey sounding", while technic-Angel's songs were described by him as "maximalist, 170 BPM, crazy hardcore, speedcore, jungle, and drum and bass". Both characters have their own pages on Twitter.

Sound

Robinson wanted to blend different styles of electronic music from the early 2000s, such as jungle, trance and gabber. According to Robinson, he listened to "every song" from 1998 to 2003 on Beatport tagged as trance, breaks, jungle, drum and bass and techno; he stated he "listened to snippets of 100,000 songs over the course of two years." While he recognized many of it was "pretty uninspired and forgettable", he identified "trends of sound design and structure" that he could incorporate. Robinson had to research how to authentically recreate sounds from PC Music's "hyper-modern, complex productions", such as looking into early 2000s sample packs. However, he also stated that he didn't want Virtual Self to be "exclusively referential": "I was always trying to incorporate some kind of twist so it's an homage to a time period but somehow distorted." As such, while still using mostly early 2000s sounds, Robinson also tried to implement modern song structures, stating that he wanted to "morph 2001 tropes into a 2017 production sensibility". Robinson also particularly stated that Calvin Harris' 2009 song "I'm Not Alone" was "really inspirational" for Virtual Self.

Design

Virtual Self's music videos and website contain cryptic messages and questions. Robinson stated that he didn't want to convey specific meaning for these; Robinson said Virtual Self is about creating a mysterious atmosphere. He described the "methodology of Virtual Self", especially its visuals, as "chaotic". His techniques to obtain these messages included translating sentences many times on Google Translate so he could use mistranslations as an inspiration, and Markov chains. Robinson also cited influences from a design trope in year 2000 digital abstract art "where people would put tiny text everywhere — little floating sentences that are partially blurry and transparent. You feel like they're being whispered to you by a robot. A lot of these sentences were not meaningful, just atmospheric." Some of these "nonsensical sentences" were taken from "the sides of arcade game boxes" Robinson used to read in the early 2000s.

Composition and songs

Media outlets described the sound of Virtual Self as trance, neotrance, hard trance, eurodance, speedcore, hardcore, and rave. Critics noted its similarity to DDR music.

The Virtual Self EP begins with "Particle Arts", "a 175-BPM juggernaut of trance stabs and happy-hardcore breaks".

Promotion and release

On October 25, 2017, Robinson released the EP's first single, "Eon Break", announcing his then-new alias Virtual Self via his Twitter page. A music video was released, containing cryptic messages. The EP's second single, "Ghost Voices", was released on November 8, 2017. On November 17, Robinson announced the Virtual Self EP, making previews of its tracks available on a new website announced on Virtual Self's Twitter page.

The EP was released on November 29, 2017. Virtual Self's first live performance debuted on December 8, 2017, in Brooklyn, New York. The show consisted of an elaborate light show and in tandem with Robinson playing a DJ set. The set included songs from the game Dance Dance Revolution as well as unreleased Virtual Self music and songs from the EP. Shows continued in 2018, where Robinson played in U.S. festivals such as the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. On January 11 that year, a music video for "Particle Arts" was released. An accompanying music video for "Ghost Voices" was released on February 28. On April 18, he released a music video for "Key". Robinson released "Angel Voices" on July 20, 2018, a happy-hardcore infused remix of "Ghost Voices" which he described as the "technic-Angel remix". Virtual Self shows continued starting on August 2018, with a two-month North American "UTOPiA SySTEM" tour.

Critical reception

In his 5.9/10 review, Philip Sherburne of Pitchfork described Virtual Self as an effort to "make a headlong plunge into an aesthetic rooted in the late 1990s and early 2000s" whose rhythms are "funkless" and "hyperactive", reminiscent of Dance Dance Revolution soundtracks. The critic then pegged "Ghost Voices" as the most contemporary sounding track of the EP and said that "Virtual Self hones in on the most garish aspects of Robinson's influences, burning away any possibility of subtlety beneath a billion-watt gleam". He finished his review by saying that "Virtual Self's trance revamp reminds us that the boundaries of taste are always in flux—and that ultimately, nostalgia will rehabilitate even the shaggiest underdogs." Kat Bein of Billboard was positive of the EP, dubbing his alias as "high-concept musical nerdiness with a heavy Final Fantasy vibe" and that the whole record "plays like a killer soundtrack to the best mid-2000s RPG Nintendo forgot to release". DJ Times magazine's Brian Bonavoglia wrote that although the EP's sound was a large change of pace compared to his preceding Worlds album, Virtual Self still maintained all aspects of Robinson's "production brilliance".

Billboard staff chose "Ghost Voices" as the 32nd best dance/electronic song of 2017, with Kat Bein stating that it is "the dankest song on the five-track self-titled EP. Its classic house groove and futuristic touchest beckon you to the dark side of the dance floor and the web." In an interview with the same magazine published in February 2018, DJ Calvin Harris stated that the Virtual Self project, in particular the track "Ghost Voices", "restored his love of dance music". In January 2019, it was announced that "Ghost Voices" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, marking Robinson's first nomination. In a statement to Billboard Dance, Robinson says he discovered the nomination through Twitter "of all places". At the time, he hadn't even realized "Ghost Voices" was submitted for consideration.

Track listing

All music is composed by Porter Robinson.

Release history

Commercial performance

In the United States, Virtual Self sold 1,000 copies in its first week of release.

Notes

1. ^ Robinson has cited 1998–2003, 1999–2003 or early 2000s as the periods of inspiration for Virtual Self. In some instances, "Early 2000s" will be used, as it's the most mentioned by Robinson in interviews and for simplification.

References

1. ^ "Porter Robinson's ambitious, human Virtual Self". The Fader. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
2. ^ Bein, Kat (April 10, 2018). "Porter Robinson Talks Writing a 'Really Sincere Love Letter' to the Early 2000s With Virtual Self Project". Billboard. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
3. ^ "Porter Robinson - Virtual Self Interview Virtual Self の秘密に迫る！". iFLYER. May 18, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2023 – via YouTube.
4. ^ "Porter Robinson: DJ Mag North America cover feature". DJMag.com. February 15, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
5. ^ ""I Don't Take That Lightly" Porter Robinson Interviewed". Clash. May 18, 2022. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
6. ^ Bein, Kat (January 30, 2018). "Porter Robinson Confirms Leaked Email on Virtual Self, State of Electronic Music". Billboard. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
7. "Porter Robinson: 'Calvin Harris was really inspirational for Virtual Self'". DJMag.com. Retrieved November 26, 2023.
8. Erik (November 8, 2017). "Virtual Self - What We Know About Porter Robinson's New Alias". EDM Sauce. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
9. ^ Moen, Matt (August 24, 2021). "Let Porter Robinson 'Nurture' You". Paper. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
10. ^ Sherburne, Philip (January 3, 2018). "Virtual Self: Virtual Self EP Album Review". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
11. "Porter Robinson Unveils 'Virtual Self' Alias With Stomping, 'DDR'-Inspired Jam 'Eon Breaks'". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 29, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
12. Bein, Kat (November 8, 2017). "Porter Robinson Takes Virtual Self Into Another Dimension With New Song 'Ghost Voices'". Billboard. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
13. "Porter Robinson Announces Debut EP as Virtual Self". Billboard. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
14. "Virtual Self announces debut EP, shares song previews". Dancing Astronaut. November 18, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
15. ^ Bein, Kat (November 29, 2017). "Porter Robinson's EP as 'Virtual Self' Brings Bright And Dark Together In A Kaleidoscope of Fun: Listen". Billboard. Archived from the original on November 30, 2017. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
16. "Porter Robinson Releases Incredible EP As VIRTUAL SELF". EDM Identity. November 29, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
17. "This Fan Recorded Virtual Self's Entire First Ever Show [MUST WATCH]". Your EDM. December 9, 2017. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
18. "Porter Robinson Goes Nu-Trance with Incredible Virtual Self Show". EDMTunes. December 9, 2017. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
19. Bein, Kat (January 18, 2018). "Virtual Self's 'Particle Arts' Is a Trip Through Spacey Zen Gardens: Watch". Billboard. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
20. Bein, Kat (February 28, 2018). "Porter Robinson Shares More About Virtual Self in 'Ghost Voices' Video: Watch". Billboard. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
21. Siganporia, Melody (April 24, 2018). "Virtual Self Surprises Fans by Unexpectedly Dropping Music Video for "Key"". EDM.com. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
22. "Virtual Self Releases Technic-Angel Remix of 'Ghost Voices,' a.k.a. 'Angel Voices': Listen". Billboard. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
23. "Porter Robinson Announces Virtual Self North American Utopia Tour: Watch". Billboard. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
24. Bonavogli, Brian (November 29, 2017). "Porter Robinson Releases Highly Anticipated "Virtual Self" EP". DJ Times. Archived from the original on February 5, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
25. "Billboard's 50 Best Dance/Electronic Songs of 2017: Critics' Picks". Billboard. December 15, 2017. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
26. Bein, Kat (February 12, 2018). "Calvin Harris Says Porter Robinson Restored His Love of Dance Music". Billboard. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
27. Sunkel, Cameron (January 9, 2019). "Porter Robinson Speaks About Grammy Nomination for Virtual Self". EDM.com. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
28. ^ Murray, Gordon (December 7, 2017). "Billboard Dance Chart Upstarts: Lost Frequencies & Zonderling, Loud Luxury and Virtual Self". Billboard. Retrieved July 1, 2018.

• Porter Robinson albums
• 2017 EPs
• Trance EPs
• Speedcore albums
• Hardcore (electronic dance music genre) albums
• Rave albums