Review Summary: scalars and vectors
My favorite artists have always been the ones who knew how to balance between innovation and accessibility. These musicians find the sweet spot where songs are still experimental enough to excite but traditional enough to stick. Porter Robinson, the bedroom producer turned international DJ behind the appropriately named Virtual Self, has always straddled this line excellently.
Worlds and
Spitfire both wore their influences on their sleeve, whether it be Zoom Lens or Spinnin’, and this time it’s Anjunabeats. The problem has never been whether or not he’s original, because he’s not pretending to be inventing new sounds. It’s more of an issue of forward momentum – to balance on a tightrope you have to keep moving forward, and Porter is starting to tilt a little with
Virtual Self.
Fast, percussive, and high-energy, Virtual Self defies expectations for someone whose main claim to fame was abandoning EDM for slower paced tracks like “Sad Machine” or “Sea of Voices.” Returning to a festival-ready style after the bubble had already long since popped is not what I expected him to do, but it makes sense looking back. Just like
Spitfire had hints of
Worlds, his recent output and taste (most prominently, the carbonated drop on his remix of Nero’s “The Thrill”) winked at his future direction. At the same time, it keeps with themes that have been prominent throughout all his work – vocals with vague yet strangely emotional messages of love and transcendence, Miyazaki-esque piano leads, suspenseful leads into instrumental segments, and a constant sense of extreme melody.
What this ultimately means is that this is still a great listen. I’ve been excited ever since “EON BREAK” dropped out of nowhere, and I wasn’t exactly disappointed. It sounds pretty much exactly like you would expect Porter Robinson doing trance, a heavily underrated style that some consider to be the pinnacle of electronic music, to sound. Everything is smooth, well-executed, and simultaneously beautiful and powerful, another balancing act that he’s managed to master, with new details appearing on every listen. Unfortunately, for an artist so obsessed with visuals and a message, it’s unclear exactly where he’s going with this. I get what it’s inspired by, I understand how it fits into his discography, and I know there’s nothing super wrong with it. But as the final track’s constant drums suddenly disappear and it fades out to nothing, I can’t help but wonder if Porter knows what all this means, if he knows where he’s headed from here. I hope it’s somewhere a little more concrete, for his sake.
