na: subtle

Anticon has always had a weird relationship with hip-hop. Instead, they’ve always seemed to get on better with the indie rock kids. Their catalogue is littered with artists that have collaborated with a variety of German indietronica stars, English post-rockers and American I-don’t-know-what’s.

Subtle, whose main two members (Jel and Doseone) got their start on the label, continue that trend with their newest release, Yell & Ice, bringing in members of the aforementioned Hood (“Sinking Pinks”), Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade (“Middleclass Haunt”), Markus Acher of the Notwist (“Pit Within Pits”) and perhaps most notably Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio (“Deathful”).

In true hip-hop fashion, the album is basically a reworking of their excellent For Hero: For Fool from last year. The group’s MySpace explains:

Like “wishingbone” revisited Subtle’s first LP “a new white”, “yell&ice” explores and reinterprets their critically acclaimed and most recent full-length, “for hero: for fool”.
Both “wishingbone” and “yell&ice” were fashioned to further explore Subtle’s conceptual protagonist, Hour Hero yes, while creating a medium for the band’s love of collaborative music making. Unlike a typical collection of remixes, “yell&ice” utterly reapproaches the lyrics and music of “for hero: for fool”. In order to better suit the pallette and prowess of each respective collaborator, poems were rewritten, sounds resampled, and time signatures unlocked. Then these songbones were sent to our collaborators/confidantes who then rewrote, sang, and sequenced to the tune of their talents.

I wouldn’t be too worried, though: these remixes are all very firmly in-line with the group’s uncompromising noise-hop aesthetic. Dig in…