Chamber Music: About the Wu-Tang (in 36 Pieces)

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Description

Will Ashon tells, in 36 interlinked 'chambers', the story of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and how it changed the world. As unexpected and complex as the album itself, Chamber Music ranges from provocative essays to semi-comic skits, from deep scholarly analysis to satirical celebration, seeking to contextualise, reveal and honour this singularly composite work of art.

From the FBI's war on drugs to the porn theatres of 42nd street, from the history of jazz to the future of politics, Chamber Music is an explosive and revelatory new way of writing about music and culture.

Reviews

Like the work of art it takes as its subject, Ashon's book is stylistically loaded, reckless, funny, naked, thorough, thoughtful, mysterious, devastating, unrelenting, and compassionate. One of the most rewarding pieces of hip-hop criticism ever written -- Jeff Chang, author * We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation *
One of the most essential pieces of rap writing since Nelson George himself. Five mics. -- Nikesh Shukla
Brilliant -- Gilles Peterson
A remarkable achievement and the sort of writing this landmark album deserves. Unconstrained, relentless and deeply moving for fans of Wu-Tang. Just plain dope. -- Guy Gunaratne
An awesome slice of hip hop history -- Jeffrey Boakye
[A] clever, provocative, ambitious thrill-ride of a book, an investigation of the divergence between mainstream history and subcultural history, official truths and alternative facts... Ashon's work is as lyrical, as complex, as unapologetically intellectual as the best works of modern literature... Ashon travels the globe tracking the provenance of words, gestures and rituals which characterise hip hop culture. And for those of us who relish great music journalism, Ashon is up there with all the heavyweights ... Full of sound and fury, Chamber Music signifies everything that suddenly feels not just important but roaringly urgent about black American culture. This is its time... A knockout -- Jane Graham * Big Issue *
Will Ashon's dazzling study gets to the heart of hip hop, pop culture and the history of contemporary America. Essential -- Matt Thorne
I loved it. Passionately written, diligently researched, lovingly rendered. A breathtaking effort that is as broad in its scope as all books about albums should be. -- Kate Tempest
Each of these chambers contains wonders of history, destiny and mythology. Enter the Wu-Tang (in 36 Pieces) is hiphop as race and class politics, as music and as poetry on the move. Through Ashton's vibrant textured prose we watch in awe as these young men seize on whatever the culture has to offer, sampling leftovers and legacies, making themselves into ferocious artists -- Margo Jefferson
A collage of disparate but enticing fragments, like Wu-Tang's music - rich with sampling, allusions, oblique references and confusing tangents. It's ambitious, flawed and a lot more fun than any straight album biography would be -- Dan Hancox * Observer *
Will Ashon has come up with something really special * Observer *
An unputdownable delight...Highly recommended for fans of inventive music hackery * Electronic Sound *
Exhilarating. A new kind of in-depth fandom -- Eoghan O'Sullivan * Irish Examiner *
A more consciously artful...take on the creation of the hip hop collective's debut studio album. But it's all the other things it takes in - black religious fundamentalism, a history of minstrels, Hong Kong's wuxia cinema and pornography and the Mafia on New York's 42nd Street - that will keep you reading -- Teddy Jamieson * Herald *
Over 36 chapters, Ashon does a bravura job at presenting an archaeology of the Wu-Tang Clan, digging around the group to situate it within the larger structures of American society and culture... the prose flows like blood at a murder scene... engaging and edifying -- Liam Cagney * Irish Times *
An eclectic tribute to the album, Chamber Music; About the Wu-Tang (In 36 Pieces), which covers everything from the urban geography of New York to the history of jazz * Latest Brighton *
Chamber Music is an eclectic triumph; a scholarly, exhilarating account of a group and its times * Review 31 *

Author Bio

Will Ashon is the author of Strange Labyrinth (Granta, 2017) and two novels. He previously ran BIG DADA records where his artists included Roots Manuva, MF DOOM, Kate Tempest and Diplo.