Originally released on Fat Beats Records in 2009, El Michels Affair’s landmark album Enter the 37th Chamber celebrates its 15th Anniversary in 2024. Featuring reinterpretations of some of the Wu Tang Clan’s classic anthems, the album flips raw, stripped-back 90s production into soulful instrumental arrangements. Cover versions of tracks such as “C.R.E.A.M.” and “Can It All Be So Simple” conjure the vintage textures of the records RZA sampled to create the originals, with familiar melodies and driving rhythms elevated by expertly-arranged horns and strings.

Since 2009 the gritty, low end feel of these analog recordings—dubbed “Cinematic Soul”—has been both widely celebrated and often imitated. After releasing other tribute albums including Return to the 37th Chamber in the following decade, the group returned with original albums and collaborative projects with Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, Liam Bailey, and Black Thought, including 2023’s Glorious Game. Now 15 years after its initial release, Enter the 37th Chamber has proven to be one of the true classic instrumental albums of its era, every bit as enduring as the music it had meant to pay homage to.