REVIEW -- N.A.S.A.: THE SPIRIT OF APOLLO

N.A.S.A.

The Spirit of Apollo

(Anti-)

The real stars of N.A.S.A. aren’t the L.A. production duo at the center of the studio project. It’s all the big names that weave in and out of the grooves. For more than an hour, they come: David Byrne, M.I.A. They go: Tom Waits, Karen O. There’s even a bunch of Wu-Tangers in there somewhere. Masterminds Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon get lost in the shuffle, but The Spirit of Apollo is all about mashing-up hip-hop like it’s some sort of pliable natural substance. So even if the beats are supple (the lurching global funk of “People Tree,” “Strange Enough”’s razor-blade rock, the stuttering and spastic “Whachadoin?”), the rhymes flow like something out of a fever dream. Would you expect anything less from George Clinton, Kool Keith and Ol’ Dirty Bastard? -- Michael Gallucci