In their continuous quest for world domination, the Wu-Tang Clan and its affiliated members have churned out albums over the last five years at such a rate that it has become increasingly difficult to keep track of the releases.
"The Wu-Tang Clan are undoubtedly in decline, but given the musical peaks they have scaled in the past, there remains plenty of sublime scenery to observe on the way down."
LITTLE HAS gone right for the Wu-Tang Clan over the past couple of years. They collaborated with Texas on one of the worst singles of the Nineties, their Wu-Wear clothing line is by all accounts going down the tubes, and they’ve been whacking out an increasingly lazy standard of product.
Just what the hell are Wu-Tang Clan these days anyway? A finishing school for loony-tunesters like ODB, Raekwon, Redman and Method Man? A clothing label/video game franchise? A hip-hop Freemasonry who’ve ceased to exist as a unit per se, but whose name and trademark represent a code of ethics by which the new breed must be measured?
GIVEN HIP-HOP/film industry synergy, it's hardly surprising that the whole Wu Tang Clan-inspired Samurai-rap assassin ideal should eventually become immortalised on celluloid.
THIS WHOLE "Can Caucasians Rap?" claptrap is getting very tired. The US press might be having a field day over the fact that a new wave of white devils (Dr. Dre's boy Eminem, Remedy of the extended Wu-Tang Clan, Non Phixion) are moving in on the 'hood, but the race issue is as after-the-fact now as it was when The Stones and Led Zeppelin were committing grand larceny against Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon.
"Most of the record is – sonically-speaking, rather than in terms of quality – classic Ghostface, but only a couple of these familiar tracks match the standard set on previous records."
They may have been overshadowed by the activities of their musical mastermind The Rza with his day job in the Wu-Tang Clan, but GRAVEDIGGAZ prime exponents of New York horrorcore hip-hop still produced one of 1997 s best albums, The Pick, The Sickle And The Shovel. Interview: PETER MURPHY.
Falling snow, falling bodies and equipment, and music to fall in love with: it’s Australian mod-disco anarcho-samplers THE AVALANCHES. Text: KIM PORCELLI
Welsh pop extroverts Super Furry Animals have delivered their most cohesive and rewarding record yet. Frontman Gruf Rhys explains why Wu Tang Clan as the band's new role model.
The first voice heard on Wu-Tang Clan’s historic debut was Ghostface Killah’s, and listening to that album again it can seem blindingly obvious that among the Clan members he was the one who would produce consistently arresting solo work.
He may have stopped smoking superhuman amounts of weed, but otherwise it’s business as usual for Ghostface Killah as he continues to spread the Wu-Tang gospel.
Jinx Lennon is a true original, a rock'n'roll outsider whose music throbs to the pulse of rural Ireland. Here he talks about attending cocktail parties with David Norris and explains why Dundalk just might be the strangest town in Ireland.
Perhaps Method Man meant a kind of back-to-basics paradigm in the title, but The Prequel is more regression than new precedent. The ingredients that made such a smooth and consistent mixture have been skewed.
Perhaps Method Man meant a kind of back-to-basics paradigm in the title, but The Prequel is more regression than new precedent. The ingredients that made such a smooth and consistent mixture have been skewed.
More rock bands should format their gigs like this – snippets of each song, segueing into each other, rapid-fire. Playing the entirety of each track on the setlist is not good for the momentum of a show, especially to people with attention spans as short as my own.
There's a new video from scrub-suited melodica doctors Clinic on the next No Disco - as well as ticket giveaways for New Breathe, and much much more. Ahhh... we feel better already
There's a new video from scrub-suited melodica doctors Clinic on the next No Disco - as well as ticket giveaways for New Breathe, and much much more. Ahhh... we feel better already
There's a new video from scrub-suited melodica doctors Clinic on the next No Disco - as well as ticket giveaways for New Breathe, and much much more. Ahhh... we feel better already
D'ANGELO may have made his audience wait five years for the follow-up to his acclaimed debut Brown Sugar, but it serves as a timely panacea for the increasingly moribund genre of "urban" R&B (the very mention of which reminds me of that excellent old joke on Larry Sanders:
JOHNNY DOWD is a 50-year-old Oklahoman who runs a haulage company. He is also a singer-songwriter who explores life s deepest, darkest sides. Interview: Peter Murphy
WHAT WE have here are two prime specimens of Metallicus Mutatus, a creature indigenous to North America and as resistant to extinction as the cockroach.
Graduates of the Manhattan avant-garde scene The Virgins join us from somewhere to the left of the middle of nowhere – that would be Madison, Wisconsin – to talk hype, art and modelling shoots.
Hot Press crime correspondent STUART CLARK
preaches zero tolerance to MASSIVE ATTACK and in return gets the
lowdown on their new album, Bruce n Tarby-style hobnobbing with Radiohead, and why Bristol City piss all over Bristol Rovers
30th Anniversary Retrospective: On the eve of the release of their fifth album, Ash talk longevity, writing songs in Bono’s summer house and why Twilight Of The Innocents is not a pipe-and-slippers album.
From hip replacement to hip and onto hip-hop, the second coming of texas has been one of the most unlikely artistic and commercial triumphs of recent years.
But as olaf Tyaransen discovers, the new-look
sharleen spiteri remains very much her old self.
The recent murder of
the notorious b.i.g., following the killing of Tupac shakur six months ago, has been linked by many to the prolonged East Coast-West Coast feud which threatened to tear the US hip-hop community apart. jonathan o brien reports on how life
chillingly imitates art in the gangsta rap wars.
In the second and final part of an extensive interview, MIKE SCOTT discusses inspiration and influences, recalls his difficult solo years and explains the death and resurrection of THE WATERBOYS. Interview: PETER MURPHY
They’re different, they’re fun, they have their critics but more and more people seem to love them. But enough about the trams; it’s all aboard for an interview with another Dublin
sensation Republic of Loose.
A thrilling collision in the Guinness Storehouse between the aural and visual worlds, Wonky2 - brainchild of Leagues O'Toole - proved that at some parties, you don't have to check your mind in at the door
Albums such as Streetcleaner and Pure have established Brummie noise terrorists godflesh as one of the most exciting alternative bands on the planet. Their latest effort, Love And Hate In Dub, is a radically overhauled remix version of its predecessor, Songs Of Love And Hate. The band s
talkative mainman justin broadrick explains all to jonathan o Brien.
It's head-scratching, nail-biting, on-the-tip-of-your-tongue time again, as GEORGE BYRNE presides over our renowned annual music quiz [this is for the year 2000]
Of course, there are some prime Wu-Tang tunes here.....But this listener misses the sheer force of character of ODB or Redman, an ill not even guests like Flavor Flav and Ron Isley can remedy.
The spectacle of U2 playing to 50,000 admirers with OASIS as their support band would seem to suggest that reports of PopMart's demise have been greatly exagerrated. And, behind the scenes, the mood is even more upbeat as the two bands revel in a mutual appreciation society.
Neil "Access All Areas" McCormick was with them in the dressing room, the mini-bus and the after-hours bar.
A flyover near the old Harland & Wolff shipyard was the starting point for a remarkable three months that has seen Franz Ferdinand challenging U2 and Coldplay for the title of ‘Biggest Band In The World'. Daredevil photographic exploits completed, Hot Press jumped on their tour bus and got the lowdown on Snoop, Bono, Kanye West, Natasha Bedingfield and nights of debauchery with the Scissor Sisters.
Greetings From LA
beck and tom petty get together in Los Angeles for an impassioned rap on songs, songwriting, showbiz, the Unplugged phenomenon and how too much music can boggle the mind. mark rowland listens in.
Jesus Christ And The Church Of Gnostic Rock. Peter Murphy on the good, clean, but mostly dirty, fight for the soul of the Devil s Music. Part One: The Old Testament.
With ‘Yellow’, Coldplay captured the imagination of even the most resistant of hard-boiled rock’n’roll cynics. Now, as A Rush Of Blood To The Head achieves lift-off in the U.S., even the sky is no longer the limit.
It's been a long strange trip and no mistake, one that describes a discernible line from
Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music through to the Handsome Family.
But there's even more going on beneath the surface. GREIL MARCUS, the music critic's music critic,
is PETER MURPHY's guide on a mystery train whose other passengers include Elvis Presley, Robert Johnson, Mark Twain, Nick Cave, The Blair Witch, Bill Clinton, The Band, Siniad O'Connor, Beck, William Burroughs, William Faulkner and Bob Dylan. And that's just the first class carriage. All aboard
