Subtle

For Hero : For Fool

[4/5] “A Tale Of Apes I,” the opening track to Subtle’s latest release, For Hero : For Fool, sounds like an odd melding of the Flaming Lips and Afrika Bambaataa. That fact alone guarantees that whether or not you like this album, it’s definitely going to be an interesting listen. Comprised of members from the Anticon label (Doseone & Jel), Subtle are a six-piece hip-hop group that are in a world all their own. After overcoming a bus crash that left member Dax Pierson paralyzed, they channeled their emotional experience into an album that’s even more ambitious and progressive than their groundbreaking debut, A New White. The range of For Hero is anything but typical. Following a storyline based on a fictional rapper named Hour Hero Yes, the sextet take glitchy electronics, nerdy psychedelic rock and various forms of hip-hop to create a completely over-the-top concept album-and it works perfectly. This, my friends, is the new shit. (ASTRALWERKS/LEX) Eddie Fleisher