Exiting Arm

Subtle

Lex

2008-06-02

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Subtle’s last record For Hero: For Fool was the sound of six accomplished producers/musicians coming together and crafting something altogether very impressive — a catchy and complex collage of progressive hip-hop-tinged pop music that really projected the group forward. Eighteen months on though and the arrival of the follow-up Exiting Arm is a semi-disappointing affair.

On a first listen the record seems just as densely populated as you’d expect, although on several of the tracks the multiple influences don’t appear to add up to anything much, in fact it’s as if the efforts of the members have cancelled each other out leaving songs cold and average. Though coming as no surprise due to the personnel present, as the album moves onwards tracks do start to bounce out of the speakers with the crisp beats and rhymes and captivating musical textures that are expected. Repeat airings lend kindly to Exiting Arm though with the flatter tracks given time to let their nuances shine and show through, however, it remains an album of two halfs, or more correctly, three thirds — unevenly (and badly) split against the first section.

The opening four tracks fail to deliver real hooks, instead miss-hitting with their angular chord progressions or harmonies which don’t lend to this musical style (fitting more to prog and mainstream pop of the 1980s). From the title track through “Day Dangerous” to “The No” the music is mashed together to equal a blandness, even when the classic Doseone rapid-fire hits in, and the music at best resembling the productions of Anticon’s interesting but not outstanding Dosh. With a cracked beat sounding like Standards-era Tortoise a more positive turn is suggested by the intro to the fourth track “Sick Soft Perfection” but it ends up more of an ambling mess of ideas and it takes until the follower “Hollow Hollered” for the album to really deliver the first great moments.

the group’s over-adventurous nature does lead to unnecessary hit and miss interludes

A more coherent approach is audible on the fifth track, with focused sections of hip-hop and instrumental experimentation flowing into each other, the vocal delivery shifting between personnel much more naturally and with punchy beats, engaging bass riffs, and atmospheric synths and instrumentation. Starting off with soft ballad guitars and sung vocals “The Crow” continues the much more positive trend, developing a typically hip-hop beat but keeping the group vocal over a classic indie chord progression to create an ear-capturing winner, although the group’s over-adventurous nature does lead to unnecessary hit and miss interludes/sections. A hint of stonk to “Unlikely Rock Shock”s beat drives the record into further interesting terrain with different sections offering waves of repeated vocal lines, call and response, classic rap and electro within the mix.

The album’s final third is generally still positive though not always keeping the standard it could. “Take To Take” moves entertainingly from warehouse rave tones and percussions in its intro into more menacing vocal deliveries and accompaniments, with a punchy puncturing beat reminiscent of the newer Battles pop work. Despite bursting in loud and hectic, “Gonebones” rocks out a great little instrumental riff and then plays more with dynamics than at most points on the record, at several points moving away from the melee to bring it all a little closer and it is all the better for it (though to reduce the scale for Subtle is still to leave it more complicated than most making pop dare to tread). “Wanted Found” takes it closer still with a slower mood, and often lighter instrumentation with strong organs, twinkles and warbling computer game tones fizzing, and overall lending an atmospheric power as it rises back to noisier terrain. And “Providence” ends the album showing the magic that the group can offer — ethereal moods, strong bass, engaging lead and clever builds and breaks including arpeggiating vocal polyphonies.

Flitting between styles by the second and showing off a mastery of production, Exiting Arm is certainly another interesting adventure, if merely following the lead of the group’s previous work. For all of its schizophrenia the 45 minutes of Subtle’s third full-length seem to fly by — a shame that nearly half of it is forgettable.