El Michels Affair - Enter the 37th Chamber

El Michels Affair's Enter the 37th Chamber flips the Wu-Tang Clan script, turning RZA's grimy soul samples back into the live band records they always sounded like.

Led by multi-instrumentalist and producer Leon Michels, the New York outfit had already built a reputation for authentic, vintage-sounding soul and funk. Released in 2009, this album takes classic songs by the Wu-Tang Clan and its members' solo projects and reimagines them as cinematic instrumentals, full of horns, organ and heavy drums. The idea sounds simple, but the execution is so rich that it feels like discovering a lost soundtrack.

"C.R.E.A.M." becomes a smoky, slow-burning soul lament, its famous piano line given new warmth by the band. "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" turns playful and loose, while "Criminology" builds into a tense, dramatic workout with punchy brass. "Protect Ya Neck" hits with gritty, raw-edged funk, the drums cracking like they were recorded in a basement in 1971.

It works beautifully as both a loving tribute and a standalone record, perfect for crate diggers and hip hop heads alike.

On black vinyl, it is a reminder of how deeply soul music runs through the Wu-Tang sound, and how good those melodies sound when real musicians bring them to life.