Subtle intent

Adam “Dose One” Drucker likes to talk. In conversation, the 30-year-old performer speaks in lengthy, discursive bursts. He gives you his thoughts, which are both deprecating and illuminating on music and art (including, of course, his own), through streams of words. Far from a narcissist, a close listen reveals that he’s full of ideas. But it can be a challenge to take all his thoughts in.

Dose One first garnered national attention nearly a decade ago as a top-flight battle rapper who bested future Kanye West protégé Rhymefest and fought Eminem to a standstill. He evolved into what he calls a “front person” — someone who sings, shouts speed-raps, chants incantatory phrases and harmonizes, often transforming his lyrics into sounds as jarring and pure as those generated with instruments. He’s the most striking element in Subtle, a group he shares with beat maker Jel and musicians Dax Pierson, Jordan Dalrymple, Marton Dowers and Alexander Kort.

Subtle sounds a lot like the word. The music is precise and textured. Each song usually contains several tempo changes, sonic stanzas that transport you through sections of Dose One’s poetry. But you won’t find any obvious hit singles on Subtle’s records. “None of our songs exist just to be chopped off and put out into the world,” says Dose One. “Everything is always integrated, and there’s a lot of layers. One thing that is sacrificed is the immediacy of the first listen. But that’s part our mystique, and for some people, it’s part of what they would only call a challenge.” He pauses and then says, cheekily, “I think it should be listened to in headphones, in hundred-dollar headphones. The entire world should buy hundred-dollar headphones.”

Subtle’s fans include Beck, who asked the group to contribute a remix to his Guerolito compilation last year. The group’s resulting take on “Farewell Ride” is also included in Wishingbone, a CD/DVD collection of new tracks, reworks, and an award-winning short animation film for “Swanmeat” created by European animation unit SSSR. (The short won for Best Music Video at the 2006 British Animation Awards.)

As participants in the busy Bay Area music community, Dose One (Anticon, Themselves, cLOUDDEAD), Jel (Anticon, Themselves), Pierson (Winfred E. Eye), Dalrymple (Call & Response), Kort (Jill Tracy and the Malcontent Orchestra) and Dowers all participate in different musical relationships. Initially, Subtle was no different. But outside circumstances drew them closer.

Over the course of two years, Subtle issued four EPs, each named for one of the four seasons, on their own label, A Purple 100. (Purple is the name of Dose One’s cat.) The EPs’ success led to a record deal with British imprint Lex Records — which also introduced Danger Mouse to the world — and a 2004 full-length debut, A New White.

Less happily, the group was involved in an auto accident while traveling through Atlantic, Iowa, on its North American tour. The February 2005 crash left Pierson paralyzed from the neck down. “Subtle is Dax’s band,” says Dose One. “Dax is the one who had the name. Dax is the one who met me and [Jel] and was like, ‘You know what? I have these four guys I always wanted to start a band with, and if we start it with you, too, I think it’s perfect.’”

It’s cruelly ironic that Pierson would be the one most affected by the accident. Now confined to a wheelchair, he still contributes vocals to Subtle’s second album, For Hero: For Fool, which is scheduled for release later this year.

“There’s something about everything being generated on the spot and a group of people being completely accountable for the songs in a different way,” says Dose One. “Then after everything we’ve been going through with Dax and all this stuff, we’ve gotten so close, and it has made our music. The new record is really the most focused output I’ve ever had a chance to make.”