Search - Subtle :: Yell & Ice

The Radiohead of post hip hop

Jason Harrington | www.myspace.com/mad_trucker | 02/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I could never imagine a better example of all my favorite genres combined: progessive abstract hip-hop, indie synth-pop, lo-fi/experimental, soft core industrial, freak folk...it's all in there.



To even imagine Dose One, Jel, Why?, TV on the Radio & Wolf Parade on the same album (not to mention Dosh, Fog & Hood)...it's just all too much for my brain to fathom.



Besides the facts, this is flat out the best CD I have ever heard, period! The melodies and hooks are catchy without loosing a drop of their wierdness. In it's 37 minutes, I hardly have enough time to even comprehend something as detailed and unique as this, much less complain. I can only hope Adam Drucker's relationship with all these collaborators will continue for many years, because this experiment was more succeful than my wildest expectations.



I have heard all of this bands albums, except those exclusively released on MP3, and after months of owning this I still feel that this clearly takes the cake not only in Subtle's discography, but in the entire body of Dose One's work up to this point.



If you like the kind of stuff that Mush Records and Anticon Records have been putting out for years, then this should totally blow your mind. Otherwise I have no clue what to compare it to. I mean, when is the last time you heard layered acoustic guitar and singing melodies with sythesizers, hints of rapping, crunchy drum machine experiments and deeply poetic lyrics? Because if you have heard anything like this then I want to know (and buy it).



If a little voice inside you is telling you to buy this but you are not listening, then you are a darn fool!!!!!! (Also check out the new Why? album "Alopecia." For my money it gets no better than these two albums.)"