Virtual Self (EP)

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), a deviation from his earlier sound, Robinson suffered with depression and struggled to create a similar-sounding follow-up. He then started planning 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 and Internet webpages from that period as sources of inspiration.

Robinson decided to separate his work as Virtual Self from the one under his own name, and he does not play songs from both in the same shows. The alias is represented by two characters created by Robinson: Pathselector, with mid-tempo songs, and Technic-Angel, with faster ones. Virtual Self is a trance and neotrance EP. Robinson tried to recreate sounds from the early 2000s while still incorporating modern song structures. Virtual Self's visuals present cryptic messages and a mysterious atmosphere.

Two singles were released ahead of the EP: "Eon Break" and "Ghost Voices", with the latter being nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards (2019). Robinson toured as Virtual Self in support of the EP starting in December 2017, and later in 2018 during the Utopia System tour. The EP sold a thousand copies in its first week of release in the United States and charted on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Album Sales and Heatseekers Albums.