ExitingARM

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ExitingARM

Studio album by Subtle

Released

Professional reviews

Subtle chronology

Yell&Ice
(2006)

ExitingARM
(2008)

ExitingARM is the third full-length album from Oakland-based experimental hip-hop sextet Subtle, released by Lex Records on May 13, 2008.

In an interview with Pitchfork, Subtle's frontman and lyricist Doseone explained that the title ExitingARM referred to the arm as the only way that ideas can exit the mind. "Since the first apes used a blade of grass as a tool on a comb of ants. The human mind started to make room for free time. And the arm became the only exit for the mind, in this world, as the mind developed. So you have war through the arm, and you have the various arts, all coming out through the arm. So as this develops, the free mind starts to expand, and nervousness enters the world, and fear of galactic proportions."[1]

The lyric booklet to accompany the album appears to have pages torn out of it and there is an additional 20,000 words of written content to coincide with the album available online. According to the same interview, Doseone intentionally removed the word "I" from all the lyrics.

He cited Buckminster Fuller, Dylan Thomas, The NeverEnding Story and Le Corbusier's modular man as ideas which contributed to the creation of the album.

Band member Dax Pierson, who was paralyzed from the shoulders down after a February 2005 tour van accident has been able to contribute to the album, composing music in Ableton Live. "It's hard to describe," said Doseone in the Pitchfork intervew, "very easy to understand when you see it, but he has these braces that have cut-in-half pencils on them, and he types with them and uses this mouse that has single, double, triple-click and right-click all in separate buttons.”

The track 'Unlikely Rock Shock' is the first preview from the album and was released for free download on Pitchfork Media on February 1 2008. In late March, the band released a second song from the album for download, entitled 'The Crow'. [2]