Porter Robinson‘s early-2000s-trance-themed alias Virtual Self is back with a new visual for key track “Ghost Voices,” from his debut self-titled EP which dropped late last year.
The video takes place in a warehouse, filled with flickering tube television sets and weird cabling strewn across desks and monitors. A couple of robed characters materialize into the scene, though their faces don’t quite render, keeping their identities hidden and features scrambled.
Built on a thick, low hanging bass line, the song is haunted by the past, folding Detroit techno in on the more contemporary sounds of the repeated vocal hook. Just like the visages of the characters in the video, the soulful vocals here are also hard to make out — words pass but they don’t connect– reinforcing the idea of disembodied voices.
It’s a clever play on how we construct our identities online, using music that’s incredibly nostalgic for the past to draw attention to the distance between ourselves and the identities we cobble together and curate on social media, or for a more era appropriate reference, instant messenger.
Prior to this year’s cryptic Virtual Self release, the twenty-five-year-old North Carolina native quickly made a name for himself over the past eight years, releasing songs like massive hit “Say My Name” to the acclaim of fans and contemporaries alike. Robinson has shared the stage with EDM heavyweights like Zedd, Calvin Harris and Diplo.
Virtual Self is out now.
