death's dynamic shroud & galen tipton
– You Like Music

death’s dynamic shroud, with their hauntological, nostalgic vaporwave, and galen tipton’s distinctly tactile bubblegum bass combine for a supremely maximalist experiment. The title could be read almost as a teasing prompt – “Oh, you like music? Well here you f**king go!”

It’s foot on the gas from the very start, an ultimate auditory overload of chattering samples, skirting synths, and an array of rubbery squelch-adjacent sounds. The latter are likely directly from galen tipton, who has a history of exploring hyper-physical ‘brain scratch’ textures (in 2022 they released an album designed to be played with your phone inside your mouth). 

The overwhelmingness of You Like Music could easily prove to be too much – giddily though, it’s anchored with a propulsive sense of rhythm. It’s the fringes of the internet meeting the peak time of the club. These songs kick hard: chopped vocal samples flutter alongside breakneck jersey club, hopeful synths stomp alongside kickdrums that are as full and tall as the sky.

The second half of the album builds on that sense of possibility, of high drama. It corresponds to the genuine wonder in death dynamic shroud’s music, transcending the (at times) hopeless nostalgia of vaporwave to instead suggest something beyond, towards new utopias. It’s an ethos of paradigm shifting that the band takes even with regard to the distribution of their work. You Like Music was originally available exclusively as part of a monthly mixtape club shared with the bands fans, an attempt to foster genuine community and non- transactional/platform-capitalism-defined musical commerce.

For all its technical brilliance and cheeky obtuseness, You Like Music works because it understands why we do like music. It’s a physical experience, an emotional experience – best made with others, best shared with others; whether on the dancefloor, over the internet (or on the radio! 🤭)

Words by Lindsay Riley