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Clayton Purdom

Web: http://www.cokemachineglow.com

Twitter: @claytonpurdom

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Clayton Purdom lives in Chicago, where the city actually farts on you sometimes. He rides the train around and writes about music, but doesn't do so while actually riding the train, because the whole "notebook" thing feels kind of pretentious to him. He is also indulged by Cokemachineglow, Allmusic and some other places.

Posts by claytonpurdom:

Apr04

Love is All – Two Thousand and Ten Injuries (Review)

Love Is All

Two Thousand and Ten Injuries

Released by Polyvinyl Record Co.


Sweden's Love is All specialize in itchy, reverb-soaked art-punk that rarely sounds less than massive: even a plaintive cut like "Repetition" blooms into trilling regalia. On their first record, the coyly titled Nine Times That Same Song, the band played about with these sonic elements like a kid with new Legos. Here they're more careful, building tiny castles with those sax wails and subway-clatter drums, infusing moments of romantic keening (or delicious revenge, as on "Less Than Thrilled") into the din. Throughout Two Thousand and Ten Injuries, drums patter ...

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Mar11

Phantogram – Eyelid Movies (Review)

Phantogram

Eyelid Movies

Released by Barsuk


Phantogram's debut Eyelid Movies comes across as a shrine to things that sound great on headphones, full of crisp and spry drums, and breathtakingly lush synthesized textures. It could end up pretty awful, right? It could have been music to shop to or something of the sort, but the record treats this richness as reason enough to exist. In Phantogram's soulful blend of pop, hip-hop and electronica, the duo closely recalls TV on the Radio, but by eschewing that band's zeitgeist-humping seriousness, they produce something more direct and, dare I say it, sincere.

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Mar03

The Souljazz Orchestra – Rising Sun (Review)

The Souljazz Orchestra

Rising Sun



The Souljazz Orchestra treat their dense stew of Latin rhythms, soulful brass and Ethiopian tonalities as if something light and easy like comfort food, not haute cuisine. The resulting music is less concerned with global hyphenations than it is a good groove, treating classic jazz much the same way Q-Tip did on Kamaal the Abstract: a means to an end, a set of tones to pull from liberally with the end being unabashed heat. Like a lot of the excellent music from the soul throwback label Daptone, Rising Sun ...

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Mar01

Wu-Tang – Return of the Wu and Friends (Review)

Wu-Tang

Return of the Wu & Friends

Released by Gold Dust


Fifteen years in, the claim seems just as remarkable, improbable and fucking righteously correct: Wu-Tang (still) forever. Right? Around the time of 8 The Hard Way this elegant maxim felt like defiance; we said it with equal parts regret and pride, knowing it still meant something even if Ghostface and the RZA were fighting. Today, sandwiched between Cuban Linx 2 and whatever the Wu-Massacre record ends up coming out as, when I say "Wu-Tang forever" (and I frequently do) I don't feel like I'm trying to prove something. Wu-Tang may be old but it still feels active, alive, dangerous. Perhaps more so because they're old.

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Jan25

DJ Boo – Recycled Beats (Review)

DJ Boo

Recycled Beats

Released by Self-Released


The DJ mix is always a question of identity: Who is the DJ? And what are they trying to prove? Not that they're all so self-conscious, but the mix always asserts something. On The Block is Hot, Pt 2 Blockhead asserted his indvidualism over moody samples from Everlast and Rakim. On Bumps Controller 7 illustrated a knowing reverence for the Golden Age, smooshing De La against Nas and making both sound newly relevant. I've heard James Murphy treat a DJ mix as a sketchbook, Greg Gillis treat it as a urinal, Primo as another excuse to scratch a bunch. I've heard DJ Shadow do pretty much everything a two-armed human can do on a DJ mix. He was clearly proving something.

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