Manchester's
nightlife scene continues to nose-dive with the closure of both
Neighbourhood (due to fucking gangland stabbings and equally violent
doormen)
and Coyote Ugly, due to water
damage.
Issues aside, I liked both of them. With Artisan long gone- the
Spinningfields bar opposite Neighbourhood- the Avenue looks set to be
a ghostly alleyway for people making their way round to
Alchemist and Oast House.
What
a shite state of affairs.
Anyway,
I wrote back in November about a
Waterstones book signing with Will Ashon, author of Chamber Music: About
the Wu Tang.
I've
recently finished the book, an incredibly well-researched analysis of
36 Chambers, the debut album from hip hop collective The Wu-Tang Clan. The book begins by tracing the
origins of hip hop, and the black jazz musicians that laid the
foundations for one of the most successful groups in hip hop history,
before looking into the Wu's collective talents and how their
individual verses are tailored to make them, as rappers, stand out
from the eight other performers in the group. It takes in 1970s
Brooklyn upbringings, their home city of New York through the ages,
the lengthy number of martial arts movies many of the group idolised
(and later sampled during production) and the technology (and
occasional lack thereof) during production. It's fascinatingly
detailed and addictively written- making you want to stick on 36
Chambers for another listen, in every chapter.
The
Big Issue's Jane Graham extols the book's virtues better than I
could.
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