Far Side Virtual

In an age where most of us permanently have our phones on silent or vibrate, there’s something rather quaint about an album originally conceived as a series of downloadable ringtones. It seems fitting, though, for a record as enamoured with obsolete and soon-to-be-obsolete technology as James Ferraro’s 2011 album Far Side Virtual. Creating a retro-futurist utopia from squeaky-clean MIDI synths, out-of-vogue keyboard settings and Windows 95 log-in sounds, it captured the gleaming sense of optimism present at the dawn of the internet age.

While some critics bemoaned the perceived blandness of a record which drew upon corporate training videos and faceless muzak as inspirations, Far Side Virtual radiates a positivity and innocence that – whether it was meant to be ironic or not – feels increasingly alluring in the modern-day digital hellscape. What’s more, in the spaciousness of Ferraro’s arrangements and simple but deft melodies, he revealed an acute pop sensibility, with reflections of Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel’s 80s pop masterpiece So glimmering within his post-modern concept’s shiny surfaces.