Last NXNE pointed out the different realms that Purity Ring and T.Shirt reside in. Purity Ring had a jam-packed gig for the ages that had everyone in Toronto wishing they could cram into Wrongbar to see their fellow Canadians continue their ascension, while NYC-based shock-rapper T.Shirt’s headlining set for SmashMouth Entertainment’s showcase at Rivoli didn’t even happen because the cops shut it down before it even started, for some reason. Yet, T.Shirt loves the shit out of Purity Ring (he’s not the only one). He loves them so much he decided to flip the entire Shrines record.

T.Shirt’s mixtape, aptly titled Shrines, features him remixing rapping over every single track off Purity Ring’s debut and re-sequencing them in reverse order. Somehow, every track works. Obvious fits are “Amenamy,” which highlights the influence Clams Casino’s music has on producer Corin Roddick, and “Grandloves,” which already features rapping on the original (in a similar vein to fellow kick-ass dream pop peers Young Magic), but T.Shirt also finds a way to slither himself into the almost  beat-less “Cartographist.” This is where the tape works best—T.Shirt getting an opportunity to show his versatility. His previous projects suggest that his music was only for hip hop fundamentalists that listen to nothing but M.O.P. and Jeru the Damaja but this tape immediately changes that. Overall, the coolest part about this project is that T.Shirt doesn’t attempt to spit over entire songs as if they’re his own, he just drops verses over short clips of the tracks which has the whole tape clocking in under 15 minutes. It serves as a nice little sampler for T.Shirt to introduce Purity Ring to his community and proves that they’ll be welcomed into it.

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