Virtual Self (EP)

Porter Robinson had been plotting the Virtual Self project since 2015.[5] With the Virtual Self project, Porter Robinson "was experimenting with blending different styles of electronic music from around the years 1998 to 2003", including jungle, trance and gabber.[6]

On October 25, 2017, Robinson released a new single titled "Eon Break" under then-new alias Virtual Self, announced via his Twitter page.[7] A music video was also released on Robinson's YouTube channel, containing abstract three-dimensional art and cryptic messages seemingly focusing on the words "angel", "virtual", "void", and "utopia".[8] Upon announcement, previews of the EP's tracks became available on a website announced by the Virtual Self Twitter page.[9][10] His follow up single was released on November 8, 2017, which is titled "Ghost Voices".[11][12] An accompanying music video for the track was released on February 28, 2018, via Robinson's YouTube channel. 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.[13]

The EP was released on November 29, 2017. Virtual Self's first live performance debuted on December 8, 2017, in Brooklyn, New York.[14] 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.[15][16] Virtual Self shows continued in 2018, with a two-month North American "UTOPiA SySTEM" tour.[17] Robinson also released "Angel Voices" on July 20, 2018, a happy-hardcore infused remix of "Ghost Voices".[18]

Philip Sherburne from Pitchfork granted Virtual Self a 5.9/10 and describes the EP 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 concluded by stating 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".[19] 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".[20] 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".[21]

In the United States, Virtual Self sold 1,000 copies in its first week of release.[22]