Review: N.A.S.A.’s The Spirit of Apollo
February 26th, 2009 by Leilani Polk in News–A review by Creative Loafing Sarasota Editor Cooper Levy-Baker from the Sarasota blog, the 941.
Two months ago, we teased the hell out of the debut disc by the hot-shot DJ duo N.A.S.A., and posted an mp3 and a video by the group to boot. Well, this past Tuesday, the disc finally hit the streets, and Pitchfork has already chimed in with a strong-handed diss, claiming the extensive guest list scattered around The Spirit of Apollo is the only good thing about it. In writer Tom Breihan’s view, N.A.S.A.’s Rolodex trumps everything musical about the release.
And, while we certainly got a lot of mileage — about 100 words worth — out of the ridonkulous list of stars attached to the project in our original post, I couldn’t disagree more about the quality of the music the boys at N.A.S.A. have cooked up. “Money” (the video for which we posted earlier) is a propulsive beast, merging David Byrne’s New Wave nasality with energetic dancehall toasts and a speaker-rattling breakbeat. “Way Down” is all orchestral slow-grind with a wonderfully Wu way about it (which makes sense, since it’s got a guest shot from RZA). “Strange Enough,” meanwhile, splits the difference between ODB’s lunacy and Karen O’s fuzzy punk squawk with remarkable ease.
Does N.A.S.A. really use all the talent at their fingertips for maximum effect? No. Of course not. With all the big names, the expectation that N.A.S.A. could do so is just unrealistic. This music shit isn’t mathematics, and you can’t just add three points for a Kool Keith appearance and seven for a Tom Waits one, then multiply the numerals together to figure out with scientific precision exactly how awesome a collaboration between the two should be.
Is The Spirit of Apollo wildly inconsistent? Sure, just like Handsome Boy Modeling School’s So… How’s Your Girl? and Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves. And I’d bump all three over Kanye’s latest any day. 4 stars.
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