Subtle- Exiting Arm

The term "alternative rap" is one that I never have quite understood. Without a good grasp on what it means, it made me skip over bands that had been recommended to me because I had no reference point to what they would sound like. I hear about enough music that if something is mentioned in this mysterious genre, it does not make my ears perk up. The first band that I found to be awesome after years of ignoring them were Why?. After hearing their great new CD Alopecia (and in particular the crazy good "The Hollows"), I worked my way back through their solid catalog and found that I had made a mistake in dismissing this band. I should have known that it was solid as it is on the Anticon label with Dosh, but I made a foolish mistake.

The most recent band I have pulled out of the mysterious "Alt-rap" haystack is the Oakland (oops) based band Subtle. Like Why?, Subtle definitely rap on some songs, but I would not call them a rap group. The two bands that I would use as reference points were Cloud Cult and TV on the Radio. They have the chamber pop exuberance of Cloud Cult and the noise rock aesthetic of TV on the Radio, with a little more emphasis on the beats (and obviously the rapping). The CD is a great mix of dense layers of sound and pretty pop noise, with dark lyrics that add the aura of the songs. Their new cd is called Exiting Arm and is very good if you are looking for some noisy pop with some indie rapping. Or if you want some good old fashioned "alt rap", right?

MP3-Subtle- Sick Soft Perfection (from Spinner)

Subtle-Myspace