THIS IS JUST A WU-TANG FANBLOG, PT. III: ENTER THE MAGICAL MYSTERY CHAMBERS
January 27, 2010
I got a chance to sit down this weekend and give the latest Beatles/hip-hop mash-up a listen. Enter The Magical Mystery Chambers, the Wu-Tang version of an idea made popular by The Grey Album, is a mammoth piece of work. Both this album and its monochromatic predecessor combine Beatles samples with rap vocals, but Mystery Chambers is almost twice as long as Danger Mouse’s 44 minute Jay-Z/Fab Four experiment. And while Danger Mouse only took samples from The White Album and a capellas from The Black Album, mash-up artist Tom Caruana takes music, both vocals and instrumentals, from across the catalogs of both groups, including solo albums by their members and covers or alternate versions of Beatles tracks.
Luckily, the vast majority of it is compelling and varied enough to not feel like unnecessary padding. A few of the catchier songs like “Got Your Money” and “Back In The Game” are real earworms, in a good way. Some of the album’s most interesting bits come from the various intro/outro jams where interviews and other audio samples are laid over Beatles tracks for a nice groove. The Grey Album was a cool concept when it came out six years ago, but I didn’t like it enough for a repeat listen. Mystery Chambers on the other hand has been in heavy rotation since I got my hands on it last week. Give it a try; it’s out on the web for free here. At the very least it’ll have some novelty value.
Previously on This Is Just A Wu-Tang Fanblog: Pts. I & II
Tags: Hip-hop, Internet, Mash-Ups, Music, The Beatles, Tom Caruana, Wu-Tang Clan
