Not too long ago I was going through
my YouTube back catalogue (a playlist in which I keep songs I encounter but
haven't properly listened to yet) when I stumbled across Everyday by Virtual Riot. It's a glitch hop song with a cool beat but
also with some surprisingly tranquil elements. The bird sounds make you long
for spring and the calm voice of Yosie has a very soothing quality to it. This
prompted me to look further into Virtual Riot.
Virtual Riot, real name Valentin Brunn,
is a producer from Germany who released his first music in the early 2010's. He
started out with some Pendulum-like drum 'n bass work but rapidly moved towards
the dubstep sound made famous by Skrillex. And while I'm not the biggest
dubstep fan I really enjoyed some of this early work. Especially Evil Gameboy, which as the name implies
incorporates some retro-gaming Gameboy sounds, and Creepstep which has a ghostly piano melody in it. In the years
after he kept perfecting the genre, releasing more balanced songs like Fuck Gravity and Lunar. These songs alternate more calm melodic parts with hard
hitting bass.
The change to a more glitch hoppy
style became apparent in his collaborations during the last couple of years.
Songs like Flutter, Lost It and Still Kids have found themselves a permanent place in my playlist.
Whenever I'm feeling low on energy these days I put on the peculiar blend of
calm and energetic parts and I'm good to go again.
Other favourites: Earth & Sky, Paper Planes and Turn Up
Check
out more videos on Virtual Riot's YouTube channel
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