Dirt Floors: Percussion Brilliance - Tom Purdue
DIRT FLOORS (dystopian dance ritual), is a 7” 45rpm series from various artists, both archival and contemporary. Championing the sounds and approaches of primitive drum machines, synthesizers, global rhythms, and dystopian vibrations. Deep unreleased recordings from the early 80’s golden era of minimal synth, to the cold wave and industrial reactions to late 80’s pop, all the way up to the progressive sounds coming from today's disruptive youth.
DIRT FLOORS coincides with a monthly event showcasing vinyl and cassette DJ’s and live electronic performances. Starting in Salt Lake City, the monthly show is gradually rippling out to the neighboring cities and south-west states. Recordings from the live shows and song premiers are documented by the releases of these 7” records.
Tom Purdue
Dirt Floors: Dystopian Dance Ritual series “Percussion Brilliance” b/w “Stand back I’ve got a gun”
Recorded in 1988, Tom Purdue’s “Percussion Brilliance” and “Stand Back, I’ve Got a Gun” appear on this Dirt Floors series release on 7 inch 45rpm vinyl.
Tom Purdue
Tom Purdue grew up in Brigham City, Utah in the 80’s when New Wave was king. Originally learning how to play drums in his youth led to a life long appreciation of music and rhythm. Eventually he found a love for more electronic sounding drums and synths through listening to KJQ and driving an hour away to Salt Lake City to visit dance clubs like the Ritz and record stores like Mad Platter.
The drummer turned to song writing after begging an old girlfriend’s mother to teach him some basic music theory. Tom formed a synth band called Decussion Council with his friends from high school with the successful end goal of being played on KJQ’s Local’s Only.
After his friends left on LDS missions, Purdue stayed behind and released two albums of Industrial Music under his name in 1991 and 1992, which he performed live at local Salt Lake Clubs with his friends Sean Young and Kami Hall. Purdue continued writing and cataloging his music, but paused any dreams of musical ambitions to have a family with his wife Kari.
In 2012 he said goodbye to Utah and made his way to Austin, Texas to work in the videogame industry, where he now works as a game designer, developing mobile and VR game titles.