Wugazi
13 Chambers

A few weeks ago, while I was doing my daily email cleanup from a load of spam (the anti-spam is useless), I came across a message from Rolling Stone amidst flying donkeys and the rest; under normal circumstances, I would have never read it, if it hadn’t had “Wu-Tang Clan+Fugazi” in the subject. But since I'm easily influenced, like a good girl, I opened and followed it, from my email address to the Rolling Stone website, and from there to here. 

I find myself facing a 13 Songs-style yellow cover and begin to strongly fear the effect of some strange mixture: at best, as usual, I can always publicly curse whoever had the idea, especially if they touched “Turnover”; even though, strictly speaking, “Turnover” shouldn’t be there (and it isn't, sigh of relief). I put on my headphones and prepare for the worst. Mashups are a strange beast. In reality, I envy to death people who can think of them, at least until they turn out to be absolute rubbish: making a mashup means, first and foremost, having a very trained ear, much more than any average person, a good degree of imagination but - above all - musical balance (mixing Britney Spears with the B52s is NOT a good idea). And Cecil Otter and Swiss Andy have all these things, and they work on it for a couple of years, although legend has it that good Cecil had been brewing terrible revenge for a long time, apparently since a distant Fugazi concert during which he was mocked publicly by Guy Picciotto himself for sharing an ice cream cone with a friend while waiting for the concert (it seems the two kept alternating licks: come on, who wouldn't have made fun of that?).

Two years spent listening and re-listening to Fugazi's entire discography with the plan to somehow fit it into Wu-Tang pieces, a single (“Sleep Rules Everything Around Me”) launched online just in time to spark the curiosity of aficionados and in July perhaps the best mashup ever heard was released, and one of the albums of the year.

Problem number one: the title. "13 Chambers" would suggest, off the top of your head, a fusion between 13 Songs and 36 Chambers: in reality, especially concerning the Fugazi part, a good part of the tracks are also sourced from “Instrument,” a documentary celebrating the band's tenth anniversary, something that those who enter Fugazi's orbit marginally would rarely get to know. So, those like me who expected to listen to “Give me the Cure” or “Promises,” would have been disappointed. But it's a side issue: Wugazi works wonderfully, from start to finish, even for purists. It's almost a pity that Otter and Swiss Andy didn't decide to pick something from "Repeater," because the mixing work reaches particularly high-quality levels.

Problem number two: any description of "13 Chambers" pales in comparison to actually listening to it. Trying to give a comprehensive view, we can start with the fundamentals: “Ghetto Afterthought” and “Nowhere to Wait.” Here, the riff of “Waiting Room” that comes at the end will make you jump out of your seat and the same goes for “Ghetto Superstar,” turned into an absolutely smooth tune for a summer evening at the pub, beer in hand, chatting with friends and the rest. Without straying too far in terms of moods, “Floating Labels” brings out the gem “Floating Boy,” something I hadn’t heard in seven-eight years and of a rare madness; “Killa Hill” is the result of mixing “Suggestion”+”R.E.C. Room”; other highlights include “Shame on Blue” and “Another Chessboxin' Argument,” and from here on, we get closer and closer to post-hardcore iconoclasm, pieces that bring out the best self-destructive appeal of MacKaye, giving him a completely new outfit.

For the rest, there are five more enjoyable and damn well-made pieces available, with the sole exception - maybe - “Slow Like That,” which seems straight out of a Virgin or MTV playlist (there, I said it). It reminds me of one of the first comments I read somewhere when the album was released. The beauty of Wugazi is that it recalls a series of already heard things (as for me, consumed) «in the late-adolescent period, but rearranged just enough to.». And this ensures a total and absolute enjoyment.