Hello waveriders!
Take a trip with me back to February, 2009. There I was leafing through the newly
released music one Tuesday morning when I came across something unexpected and
unknown. I held a CD in my hand with cover
art depicting two enormous rockets lifting off in front of a massive disco
ball. What really drew my attention however
was the large triangular sticker affixed to the plastic wrapper. It informed me that this album I'd never heard
of featured M.I.A., Tom Waits, Santogold, David Byrne, Karen O / Chuck D, and
over 40 guest performances.
Wait, what?!?! What
album is this? The Spirit Of Apollo by some group called N.A.S.A.. Who the heck is N.A.S.A., and who in the world are the
other guest performers? I flipped the CD
over in my hands and ran through the track list. The first song featured Chali 2na, Gift of
Gab, Z-Trip and the aforementioned David Byrne.
The second track has Chuck D, Seu Jorge, and Ras Congo. Next up is a track with Method Man, E-40, and
DJ Swamp. At this point my eyes began
skipping around. I saw the names George
Clinton, Kool Keith, John Frusciante, KRS- One, Fatlip, Kanye West, RZA, Del the Funkee
Homosapien, Ghostface Killah, Scarface, and Ol' Dirty Bastard. That's insane! And that's not even the entire guest list!
If you couldn't guess TSOA
is a hip-hop album. N.A.S.A. stands for North America/South America, a fitting name for
a group made up of Los Angeles
based producer Squeak E. Clean and Brazilian producer DJ Zegon. I have discovered that the idea behind this
music was to bring together artists and musicians from different genres,
countries, races, etc. in order to show how easily the boundaries between
people can be eliminated. Unity of the
human race. That's very admirable, but I
wouldn't find it as interesting if the music were not to my liking. Good thing this album delivers such a great
listen!
Waveriders, if you're looking for something musically
interesting to dig your teeth into I strongly recommend The Spirit Of Apollo. Beware of excessive head bobbing
however. The grooves can be mighty
strong!
- Penfold
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