El Michels Affair

Enter the 37th Chamber

(Fat Beats / Truth & Soul)

Record Review by Sean P. Lambert

Love the Wu-Tang Clan but heard enough of their rapping? Do you wish you could just get an earful of all those slick backing instrumentals and beats without ODB messing up the production with his clunky chronic-induced flow or Raekwon stepping in with a bunch of F-bombs where they simply are not needed? What? Is this some kind of hate on Wu session? No, I’m playing, just like the El Michels Affair does with all your favorite RZA-fashioned Wu joints. Taking the choice chunks from cuts like “C.R.E.A.M.,” “Cherchez La Ghost,” “Can It All Be So Simple” (among 10 others), lead man Leon Michels mixes up his sax and organ skills alongside other musicians from such notable bands as The Dap-Kings, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra and Budos Band with limited recorded samples to fashion a tight set of further retooled jams. It’s an intriguing musical about-face; taking classic soul sounds from their varied original sources through RZA’s hip hop prism and then bringing them back to the basics all over again with live instrumentation. You follow? No matter; you’ll dig it, player.