Death's Dynamic Shroud (also known as death's dynamic shroud.wmv under specific releases) is an American
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
and
vaporwave
Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator, R&B, and lounge music from t ...
trio consisting of James Webster, Tech Honors, and
Keith Rankin. The band releases a large amount of music regularly as sample-driven mixtapes under the .wmv moniker, in addition to releasing more standard mainline albums.
The band's inception is regarded to have been in 2013, following the addition of Keith Rankin. However, James Webster and Tech Honors had been creating music together and independently, for several years prior.
In 2017, with the release of their album ''Heavy Black Heart,'' the group used the name, 'death's dynamic shroud' for mainline albums, and 'death's dynamic shroud.wmv' for their NUWRLD mixtape series.
History
During the 2000s and early 2010s (pre-2013), Webster, Honors, and Rankin were active within the
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater ...
music scene. Since their teens, Honors and Webster played together in the
space rock
Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drumming ...
band, ''The Sailing'', with Honors on vocals and keyboard, and Webster on vocals and guitar.
In early 2011, Rankin founded Orange Milk Records with Seth Graham. During the same time period and through 2013, Honors, Webster, along with other collaborators such as Rankin, and The Sailing bandmate Michael Kirkland took turns writing and publishing a song a day to Soundcloud under the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Rebecca Peake. Honors and Webster would later release albums compiling tracks from each month through Bandcamp, three of which were given official cassette releases via Squids Eye Tapes. Certain songs from the project would later be re-released or rearranged by the collaborators under different aliases.
In 2012, Honors and Webster founded Ghost Diamond as a way to pool their collaborative work.
The band members would continue to release more works under various labels and aliases, both as groups and individuals, and would lead to interest in
vaporwave
Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator, R&B, and lounge music from t ...
.
Early 2014 would see the release of the first project under the death's dynamic shroud.wmv name, ''シェンムーONLINE'', which heavily samples the
Shenmue
is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. '' Shenmue'' (1999) and '' Shenmue II'' (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. '' Shenmue III,'' developed by Suzuki's company ...
soundtrack and was produced by Webster alone. This would start a series of vaporwave mixtapes produced individually by Honors and Webster, known as the NUWRLD Mixtapes.
In 2015, the album I'll Try Living Like This, was released digital and CD-R. Unlike previous Death's Dynamic Shroud albums by Rankin or Webster, I'll Try Living Like This was not produced using the
Portastudio
The TASCAM Portastudio was the first four-track recorder based on a standard compact audio cassette tape. The term ''portastudio'' is exclusive to TASCAM, though it is generally used to describe all self-contained cassette-based multitrack rec ...
, in order to compliment the CD-R release. It was ranked #15 out of 50 on
FACT Magazine
A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scie ...
's Top 50 Best Albums of 2015.
Modern Conception
In 2017 they released ''Heavy Black Heart'' under Orange Milk Records, and marked the group's first album with all three members working together. It also marked a slight departure from vaporwaves' typically lo-fi production while still retaining its sample-heavy roots.
The band regards the release as an inflection point that defined their creative structure, and saw more standardization of release names and collaborations.
Honors and Webster would feature together as death's dynamic shroud on the 2018 Neo Gaia Phantasy Tour in Japan, alongside other musicians in the vaporwave scene Equip and R23X. The tour visited
Okazaki Okazaki may refer to:
*Okazaki (surname)
*Okazaki, Aichi, a city in Japan
*Okazaki Castle, a castle in Japan
*Okazaki fragments
Okazaki fragments are short sequences of DNA nucleotides (approximately 150 to 200 base pairs long in eukaryotes) w ...
,
Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, w ...
,
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ...
,
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
, and
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
. The setlist played on the tour would later be re-recorded and mastered as a studio album in 2019, ''Live From Japan'', featuring remade songs from previous albums and mixtapes alongside new material. Webster would return for the second Neo Gaia Phantasy Tour in 2019, although Honors would not be able to attend.
In late 2020 the NUWRLD Mixtape Club, a
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...
subscription service which allowed members access to exclusive death's dynamic shroud mixtapes on a monthly basis was opened to the public. For the first year of the mixtape club, mixtapes were produced by Honors and Webster, alternating each month. Rankin would release his first mixtape for the club, ''Faith In Persona'' on November 1st, 2021 to favorable reviews and marked a turning point in the group's visibility.
It would be released on
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
and
Apple Music
Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple ...
a month later.
In early 2022 the band announced a new mainline album titled ''Darklife'', again featuring contributions from all three members, which was later released in September to positive reviews.
The album was praised for being ambitious and unlike most contemporary electronic music releases. A follow-up album, ''After Angel,'' was released in 2023 consisting of material recorded in the same sessions as ''Darklife'', eight songs which were available previously on two EPs, and four new tracks.
Discography
NUWRLD Mixtapes (2014)
Mainline albums (2014–present)
Live albums
Singles
* "Judgment Bolt" (2022)
* "Neon Memories" (2022)
* "Messe de E-102" (2022)
* "Fall for Me" (2022)
* "You Are Burning Me Up Like This" (2023)
* "The Bleeding of the Sun" (2023)
* "Love Heat" (2023)
NUWRLD Mixtape Club releases (2020–present)
References
External links
*
{{vaporwave
American electronic music groups
Vaporwave musicians