Wu-Tang - Chamber Music

Rating: * * * *

Verdict:

The Clan gets it on with a little help from their friends and live band.

Chamber Music

does all the right things to be a Wu-Tang Clan album. It slopes and postures along, with the rappers standing as regal as ever, while conjuring up a sense of menace and paranoia.

It's just that they are not touting it as an official Clan album, more a collection of songs put together by head producer RZA, with other Clan members, accompanied by veteran New York hip-hoppers like Havoc from Mobb Deep (on the surging piano propelled

Evil Deeds

) and Cormega (on the excellent, strings-soaked

Radiant Jewels

).

Still, though it's not as uncompromising, the mood on

Chamber Music

harks back to early Wu-Tang albums like gritty debut

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

and often under-rated follow up,

Wu-Tang Forever

- only these days there's a modern-day polish. And tracks like

Harbor Masters

and

Sound the Horns

ooze the sort of collective energy the Clan have not shown in nearly a decade - even the pleading R&B hip-hop of

I Wish You Were Here

is tough and soulful.

With the longest of the 17 tracks not breaking four minutes the album is a tight and seamless offering made more lush and eerie thanks to instrumentation from New York soul band The Revelations.

The Wu-Tang Clan, with a little help from some friends, are sounding more potent than ever.

Scott Kara