James Ferraro is due to release his new album, Far Side Virtual, through Hippos In Tanks on October 25th. Widely credited with being one of the inspirations for the current bloom in all things bottom-of-a-swimming-pool (especially as one half of noise duo The Skaters), his prolific output has been consistently more interesting and more extreme than 99% of his contemporaries. Up until last year he was releasing a steady stream of CDRs and the odd slab of wax through the Olde English Spelling Bee label, but he's been conspicuous by his absence throughout 2011.

The reason for his radio silence has now become clear: he's bought himself a laptop and prepped Far Side Virtual, a diversion into completely new, shimmering, Reich-esque digital minimalism. It's certainly a far cry from the murky guitar vortexes of records like Last American Hero and On Air, and finds him embracing a new, rather more utopian mindset.

In the label's words: "What we find here is a work of pure modernism. a new index of futurism that abandons paranoia and anxiety for new thoughts on the dynamics between technology and humans, introducing us to a world of iPads and Augmented Humanity. A gesture towards a world gracefully empty of humans but filled with pure impressionistic beauty experienced through newly acquired appendages of the digital nature."

In advance of the full album's release, this week Ferraro has released a new EP though the label. Entitled Condo Pets, it's a good preview of what to expect. 'Text Bubbles', from the EP, is available to stream below.

James Ferraro - Text Bubbles by Hippos In Tanks