Death's Dynamic Shroud at the 'Sco
Vaporwave in 2025? It's more likely than you think
By Benjamin Rosielle
The Death’s Dynamic Shroud show last Friday at the ‘Sco was a night to remember. The ex-vaporwave legends played a set that felt like a natural expansion of their recorded material, flirting with different styles all under the umbrella of pop music.
On at 10 p.m. was the student opener, 4th-year TIMARA major Phillip Chao (AKA Yaoguaai). Yaoguaai’s setup consisted of their laptop hooked up to a Novation Launchpad MIDI controller. Their show took the audience on a journey from ambient to club sounds, keeping their sound consistent yet fresh throughout. Visuals for the set included graphics of angels, Hatsune Miku, Jesus, and even footage from The Real Housewives of Potomac. Using the multimedia programming language TouchDesigner, Yaoguaai coated their visuals in a metallic, digital sheen that shimmered and pulsed in reaction to the music. Alongside the visuals, Yaoguaai utilized spoken word samples: a particularly funny one was a text-to-speech voicing of an email about their rejected Electrophonics (TIMARA student musical showcase) submission.
Yaoguaai varied their sounds and processing enough that every moment felt engaging and exciting. At one point, I heard a sample from Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Chrome Country” (which is a decent reference point for the entire set) mixed together with vocals from Addison Rae. They also sampled Keshi, “Call Me Maybe,” and Imogen Heap’s “Just For Now.” I appreciated the stylistic contrast between the mostly dry, generic drum sounds and the richly textured ambient synth parts.
During Yaoguaai’s set, I noticed James Webster of Death’s Dynamic Shroud (henceforth known as DDS) near the front of the crowd, sipping on a beer and giving what I could only describe as a respectful head tilt. Their set felt in conversation with the music of DDS, pulling from the canon of pop culture and creating new, strange compositions out of it. After Yaoguaai’s set ended, the disco ball came on and I stepped out to DeCafé for a Red Bull.
The DDS set was eclectic and energetic, blending between ambient, synthpop and dance with ease. DDS members James Webster and Tech Honors each had a setup with a laptop and electronics, with Webster often playing the guitar and both members taking turns on vocals. This was only two-thirds of Death’s Dynamic Shroud: Their third member, Keith Rankin (perhaps better known for his work as Giant Claw), doesn’t tour with the group. Like Yaoguaai’s set, the DDS set was a collage of dance, pop and more abstract styles where it never felt like one aspect was overtaking the others. Sometimes there was a house groove, sometimes there were breakbeats. Vocals were pitch shifted, beats were time stretched, samples were glitched. I found it very impressive that their set was so consistently creative, eclectic and danceable at the same time. The lights at the ‘Sco were more dynamic than usual: my friend Autumn said that she liked it “when the bald guy's [Webster’s] head was in between the red light and the blue light and he looked like a siren.”
About halfway through their set, Webster’s laptop started cutting out. Eventually, the group had to take a pause to fix his laptop. The following dialogue occurred:
Honors: “This is all part of the show.”
Webster: “This is called progressive electronic music.”
Honors: “One moment please.”
Webster: “Good thing this didn’t happen at Coachella.”
During another break to attend to their tech, DDS made the strange remark that Oberlin College was a “garden” and that we, the students, were the “seeds.” My friend Clio said that they “felt like a tomato seed in the moment.” After one final round of tech issues, they gave up on fixing Webster’s laptop and ended the show with an impassioned rendition of Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again,” inspiring some phone flashlight waving from the crowd.