N.A.S.A - 'The Spirit Of Apollo' (Epitaph) Released: 16/02/09

N.A.S.A is two sparkly LA scenesters called Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon (of course they’re not actually CALLED these names, they’re pseudonyms like – they’re CALLED Sam Spiegel and Zé Gonzales respectively). Squeak, or Spiegel, is Spike Jonze’s brother and Zegon, or Zé is a pro skater. Yessir, these guys are some talented guys AND they’ve got some friends too…

The Spirit of Apollo boasts “over 40 guest artists”. You might expect this to be all kinds of too-kool-for-skool unheard of LA DJs and MCs – and there are some of those – but for the most part these are some really BIG names. There’s everyone from the getting-big (Lykke Li, Santogold and the Cool Kids) via the pretty-darn-big (Karen O, David Byrne and John Frusciante) to the shitting-huge (Sizzla, Chuck D and Tom Waits!). Nigh on every song has at least two guest stars on it bleating away to differing degrees of success.

Ok, so there’s Eff-loads of stars there, but does it work? Well, sometimes. The album veers so massively from one song to the next, as you’d expect if you get forty egos flying around, that it’s difficult to feel it as a coherent album.

They do successfully bring the party and you can bust some moves. Karen O’s seductive mantra over Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s and Fatlip’s gruntings on 'Strange Enough' cannot fail to get your arms bouncing. Equally, the combo of MIA and Santogold’s booty shakin’ riddims, Nick Zinner’s (Karen O’s bandmate in Yeah Yeah Yeahs) geetar and Spank Rock’s crazy scat shouting, makes the song’s name 'Whatchadoin’?' the right question to ask anyone who isn’t bouncing. 

So what’s wrong with it? Well, it’s N.A.S.A. They pipe on about unity and equality, and these grand ambitions about new world order on the 'Intro', but then proceed to fall on their own sword. With a roster this Phat you just have to do more. The stars strut their thing, but there’s no sense of anyone taking control. There’s no Bob Geldof to organise this rap version of Live Aid. And, in this case, we need a Bob Geldof.