| Product Summary | | Label: ANTI RECORDS/ADA | | UPC: 00045778700127 | | Release Date: 2/17/2009 | | Buy.com Sku: 210611956 | | Item#: M4K7K6 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25079 | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Intro ~ N.A.S.A. |  | | 2. People Tree, The - (featuring Gift Of Gab/Kool Kojak/Z-Trip/David Byrne/Chali 2NA) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 3. Money - (featuring Ras Congo/Seu Jorge/Z-Trip/David Byrne/Chuck D) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 4. N.A.S.A. Music - (featuring DJ Swamp/E-40/Method Man) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 5. Way Down - (featuring Barbie Hatch/John Frusciante/RZA) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 6. Hip Hop - (featuring Slim Kid Tre/Fatlip/KRS-One) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 7. Four Rooms, Earth View ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 8. Strange Enough - (featuring Fatlip/Ol' Dirty Bastard/Karen O) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 9. Spacious Thoughts - (featuring Kool Keith/Tom Waits) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 10. Gifted - (featuring Santogold/Lykke Li/Kanye West) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 11. Volta, A - (featuring Amanda Blank/Lovefoxxx/Sizzla) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 12. There's A Party - (featuring George Clinton/Chali 2NA) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 13. Whachadoin? - (featuring Santogold/Nick Zinner/M.I.A./Spank Rock) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 14. O Pato - (featuring Kool Kojak/DJ Babao) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 15. Samba Soul - (featuring DJ QBert/Del Tha Funkee Homosapien) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 16. Mayor, The - (featuring The Cool Kids/DJ AM/Ghostface Killah/Scarface) ~ N.A.S.A. | | | 17. N.A.S.A. Anthem ~ N.A.S.A. | |
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| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Double G (vocals, baritone saxophone, hand claps); Tom Waits (vocals, grand piano); Rusty Logsdon, Spike Jonze, Barack Obama, Dave Sprecher, Chris Judge Smith , Aleister Crowley, Matt Murphy (vocals, hand claps); Barbie Hatch (vocals, background vocals); Gift of Gab, Amanda Blank, E-40, Ras Congo, James Righton, KRS-One, Kanye West, Method Man, RZA, David Byrne, Lara Meyerratken, Chuck D, Chali 2na (vocals); Blake Mills (guitar); John Frusciante (electric guitar); Paloma Udovic (violin); Ginger Murphy (cello); Tracy Wannomae (flute); Dave Rawlicke (saxophone); Todd M. Simon (trumpet); Jason Thor (trombone); Craig Fundyga (vibraphone); Adam Topol (balafon, congas, rainsticks); Alfredo Rolando Ortiz (congas, cowbells); N.A.S.A. (programming); Seu Jorge (background vocals). | | Audio Mixers: Robert Carranza; Bob Power. | | Recording information: A9 Studios, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Avex Honolulu Studios, Honolulu, HI; Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA; Crack Alley Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Decibel studios, Stockholm, Sweden; Downtown Studios, New York, NY; Hoffmann Studios, Occidental, CA; Joey's Place; Judgment Yard, Kingston, Jamaica; Lair of The Octagon, San Francisco, CA; Legacy Studios, New York, NY; Santa Teresa, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; South Beach Studios, Miami, FL; Starks Studio, New York, NY; Studio 7303, Houston, TX; The Cutting Room, New York, NY; Titanic Studios, Harlem, NY. | | Short for North America South America, N.A.S.A. is the fruit of years of creative collaboration between DJ/producers Squeak E. Clean (aka Sam Spiegel, brother of hipster director Spike Jonze) and Zegon (aka Z? Gonzales, Brazilian pro skater and former DJ for rap group Planet Hemp). Sporting a distinctively underground hip-hop sound throughout their full-length debut, THE SPIRIT OF APOLLO, Spiegel and Gonzales recruit an astonishingly eclectic group of artists hailing from different musical worlds. Inspired by the genre-bending efforts of Dan the Automator and Prince Paul, SPIRIT OF APOLLO contains such mind-boggling pairings as Kool Keith with Tom Waits, Ol' Dirty Bastard with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and David Byrne with Chuck D. Kanye West, Santogold, M.I.A., KRS-One, George Clinton, the Rza, Sizzla, the Cool Kids, John Frusciante, Seu Jorge, and Scarface are just a sampling of the guests on hand for the mayhem. | | Collaboration albums are notoriously difficult to pilot, often needing a veteran hand at the controls. N.A.S.A.'s journey is especially tough, given that they lined up one of the most impressive guest lists ever seen on a debut album. No less than three dozen artists have features on The Spirit of Apollo, and at least ten of them would be the crown jewel on most LPs -- Kanye West, M.I.A., Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Santogold, no less than three members of Wu-Tang Clan (one of them deceased), Spank Rock, John Frusciante, Lykke Li, and a trio of alternative godfathers: David Byrne, Tom Waits, and George Clinton. N.A.S.A., a duo of DJs and producers (one American, one Brazilian), have a concept in mind, assembling sounds and styles from around the globe, then smashing them together and watching the results of such a collision, with the attendant revelations of the similarities and differences between people around the world. An ambitious concept, to be sure, and also one that comes rife with expectations when the cast is as star-studded as this. Unfortunately, as rendered by N.A.S.A., the world doesn't sound very exciting. The style of this global melting pot is basically midtempo hip-hop of the Daisy Age variety, laced with verse after verse and chorus after chorus of guest features (most tracks feature at least three). Few of the guests stand out, none of them seem to be speaking to each other, and the result is, ironically, a Babel of voices and sounds that doesn't communicate much of anything. As glorious as these soundclashes are -- Gift of Gab rapping next to David Byrne, Lykke Li singing an airy chorus over Kanye West rhymes and Santogold lines, Karen O next to Ol' Dirty Bastard, and the denouement, where Kool Keith waxes nostalgic over a gutbucket Tom Waits chorus -- they're presented with little rhyme and no reason. ~ John Bush |
Producer: N.A.S.A. |
Engineer: Karl Derfler; Squeak E. Clean |
Musical Guests | | Gift Of Gab | | Kool Kojak | | Z-Trip | | David Byrne | | Chali 2NA | | Ras Congo | | Seu Jorge | | Chuck D | | DJ Swamp | | E-40 | | Method Man | | Barbie Hatch | | John Frusciante | | RZA | | Slim Kid Tre | | Fatlip | | KRS-One | | Ol' Dirty Bastard | | Karen O | | Kool Keith | | Tom Waits | | Santogold | | Lykke Li | | |
| | Artist Overview | | Operating under the alias Squeak E. Clean, DJ/producer Sam Spiegel is actually Spike Jonze's younger brother. After accruing global acclaim by producing and remixing for artists such as Iggy Pop and Ben Lee, Spiegel turned his focus on N.A.S.A., whose cameo-loaded debut, THE SPIRIT OF APOLLO, was released in 2009. Driven by the desire to foster unusual relationships in the name of musical and cultural unity, Spiegel and his musical partner Ze Gonzales (aka DJ Zegon), have brought together such oddball pairings as Tom Waits and Kool Keith, David Byrne and Chuck D, and Karen O and Ol' Dirty Bastard. |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 02/17/2009 | | Original Release Date : 2009 | | Catalog ID : 87001 | | Label : Anti (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00045778700127 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.68)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "On APOLLO, L.A. scenemakers Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon pull in a wild roster of stars for what feels like a playful unity jam."Alternative Press (p.111)
- 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "The bongo-crazy 'Money' features the unlikely pairing of David Byrne and Chuck D.; fortunately, both are on top of their game." |
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