Maintaining a strict adherence to even those ideals that one creates personally has got to be a damned difficult endeavor. With the founding of Truth and Soul Records in light of the Soul Fire imprint’s demise, old and new band mates were collected around a single Leon Michels. And in his bedroom lair, Michels (a multi instrumentalist if there ever was one) alongside his newly comprised cohort began recording funky workouts that had as much to do with the soundtrack to Bucktown as they did with Isaac Hayes’ instrumentals from the ‘60s while he was a music director with Stax. The culmination to these sessions could be figured as multi-faceted. But the most immediate reward right now is El Michels Affair’s rendition of some Wu Tang Clan tracks.

They concept behind Enter the 37th Chamber was simply for the ensemble to rework a clutch of Wu classics. But that would seem to bring the music full circle. Obviously, the RZA is one of the most creative and thoughtful producers on the planet. But his job is still, ostensibly, to string along portions of pre-recorded works in order to create something new. So mining old records and the like is an act of reconstitution and manipulation. Where El Michels Affair comes in is that they perform the manipulated snippets of those lost soul and funk classics. So while this album could be considered a Wu Tang cover album, it really amounts to an assortment of ‘60s and ‘70s funky covers.

Pedantic ruminations aside, though, there’s nothing short of entrancing about his entire affair. Michels and company are able to side step the potential problems inherent in working with classic tracks – and there really isn’t even a moment when listeners are going to wonder with Method Man’s gonna jump on the track. Although that would undoubtedly be interesting, that’s really what Chamber Music is.

As for the samples that were able to make 36 Chambers such a unique assemblage of influences, they aren’t all gone. Just prior to “Glaciers of Ice” there’re a few sizable movie clips spliced together to introduce the track.

Of late, funk reissues and revival acts (Naomi Shelton, Sharon Jones, etc.) have bee gaining a good deal of attention – and for good reason. The players that are associated with any and all of these acts are superb in every sense of the term. It’s not hyperbole – it’s a fact. The adroit concoction of soul, funk, grit, grime and hip hop works to such affect, it really wouldn’t be too shocking to find that this is only the first installment in a series of works that function in the same mode. That might just be wishful thinking – it probably is. But the fact that it seems plausible might just mean something.

Enter the 37th Chamber has garnered only positive reviews thus far – and even if the square media hasn’t found time to trouble itself with El Michels Affair, it’s going to become more and more difficult to ignore recordings that are this strong.