NASA - The Spirit ofApollo

Tue 10th Feb, 2009 in Music Reviews

Most hip hop records include a brace of cameo verses with rappers paying back favours and giving their protégées a little exposure. Spirit of Apollo is a slightly different affair, as it’s not so much an album, but a string of guests dropping in to briefly shine before passing the mic to the next celebrity. With everyone from hip hop legends and indie rockers dropping past the studio it’s hard to imagine many music fans who wouldn’t at least be curious to spin the record.

The two producers with the enviable black books that form the NASA crew are Sam Spiegal, aka Squeak E Clean, and Ze Gonzales, aka DJ Zegon. Spiegel produced the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Show Your Bones and has worked on records for an eclectic array of musos including Iggy Pop, the Eels and Kylie. Gonzales is a Brazilian DJ who has worked extensively with Beastie Boys’ producer Mario C. One North American; one South American – thus the NASA name.

With all the stars on the record, it’s hard to pay attention to the music. There’s also the suspicion that the celebrity cast is employed to distract from weak moments in the writing – like watching a marathon of recent Saturday Night Live episodes. Dan the Automator and Prince Paul pulled a similar trick with their pair of Handsome Boy Modelling School records; through their guest combinations suggested a more adventurous ambition. (John Oates and Mars Volta on the same record, anyone?) NASA’s collection of guests seems to be heavily inspired by hipster blogs, thrown together in an attempt to capture the sound of 2008/9, with a cluster of older heroes (such as David Byrne, Chuck D, Tom Waits and George Clinton) lending their well established credentials.

After a brief intro, The People Tree kicks off the record with Chali 2na trading lines with Gift of Gab with David Byrne’s gospel influenced vocals backed by a children’s choir. Byrne returns on the financial crisis anthem, Money, as Chuck D and Ras Congo rap about money being the root of all evil. The latter takes advantage of the rhyming quirk offered by the greenback’s dead presidents – Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Jackson, Hamilton, Franklin. A harder beat drops behind Method Man and E-40 for NASA Music as the pair sum up the NASA credo – “from New York to the Bay yo/Sao Paulo to LA yo/nobody move till we say so/they wanna know who got the NASA music.”

Way Down provides the highlight of the record, with John Frusciante’s psychedelic licks providing a woozy backing to Barbie Hutch’s after-hours soul, before RZA’s slurring drawl adds a touch of Wu-Tang paranoia. As its simple title suggests Hip-Hop is little more than a – œback-in-the-day’ shout out with KRS One, Fat Lip and Slim Kid Tre providing the sort of retro track that’s become a staple of People Under the Stairs or Jurassic 5 records.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard bursts through the wall to introduce Strange Enough, spraying his off-kilter style words with indiscriminate abandon, before Karen O’s nasal vocal cuts through to play Debbie Harry. Kool Keith lays down a nostalgic and strangely straight-forward rap for Spacious Thoughts, lacking the inane genius of his Dr Octagon work. Though the rasping voice that joins Keith is credited to Tom Waits it seems more like a cheap imitation of the singer’s famed gravel, with Waits sadly pushing his trashman persona into cartoonish territory.

The bloggers delight of Gifted sees last years upstarts Santogold and Lykke Li playing hook to Kanye West’s lines. While Kanye ditches the auto-tune, in favour of boasting the track could have easily ditched Santo and Lykke without losing much. Their recent albums were among the best debuts of last year, but their inclusion adds little – Lykke in particular has little to do but coo wispily on the chorus vocals. A Volta takes the sound to a point between North and South America, with Sizzla introducing a dancehall flavour and Amanda Blank and Lovefoxxx checking in to make sure they haven’t slipped of the hip-list. George Clinton touches down to add his voice to the festivities of There’s a Party, with Clinton sounding more like a dapper elder statesman than the Funkadelic madman who helmed the mothership.

The South American influence comes through most strongly on Whachadoin?, dropping a baile beat and the mistress of global rap MIA in the midst of a rap from Spank Rock. MIA’s understudy Santogold helps out on the chorus as Nick Zinner hangs at the back doing little more than picking up a cheque of his session work. O Pato keeps the record below the equator with a bongo driven Latin beat and DJ Baboa cutting in the scratches.

Ghostface from – œStaten aka Shaolin’ teams up with Chicago’s Cool Kids and Detroit’s Scarface for each to claim that – œin my city I’m the mayor’. After The Mayor, the NASA Anthem ends the star-spotting with a lengthy flute driven jam and a sample explaining that – œThe spirit of Apollo transcends geographical barriers and political differences – it can bring the people of the world together’. The encore bonus track hidden after silence brings RZA back for another slice of hazy soul menace with the Cardigans’ Nina Persson on Electric Flowers.

The apparently odd combinations of guests don’t always translate into genre pushing sounds, as most of the record stays in fairly safe hip-hop territory with a slight South American flavour. But pushing new genre fusions isn’t really the point. This is ultimately a party mixtape with something to appeal to everyone and no guest outstaying their welcome.

The Spirit Of Apollo is out 17 February on Epitaph through Shock.