Spirit Of Apollo, The

N.A.S.A. “The Spirit of Apollo” Chockfull of upbeat musical celebrations & jaw-dropping collaborations that stray from the “We are the World” template. Tracks often mix rapped verses, sung choruses & uptempo, tribal beats. The beats themselves will not blow you away but the unexpected collaborations will – kool keith and tom waits, Karen O and Ol Dirty Bastard (his last recorded track!). Just peak at the track list & you’ll find one of your favorite artists. CD as a whole has a party vibe that can wear you down, but multiple tracks deserve air time. NO FCC
Start with 9, 10, 15
Basil baileyr@stanford.edu

1) Intro of split voice clips that describes the group’s goals
2) *Upbeat, funky piano, bass and drums w/ Jurassic 5 guest rhymes; “tasty little human beings growing on the people tree”; last 15s is just voice clips
3) *latin/reggae blend, steel drums w/ deep bass line; Byrne’s white boy crooning mixes w/ reggae raps; wish I heard more Seu Jorge in there…
4) E-40’s goofy, rapid rhymes start it; beat stays out of the way of lyrical exchanges
5) More sultry & slow than other tracks, nice feathery female vox
6) “gimme gimme gimme” in the chorus: annoying, avoid it!
7) :25 second track of voice clips & elevator music
8) *Karen O gives adds deranged vocals to the aggressive ODB verses, space pops & grungy guitar rifts in the background
9) ***starts out slow, love the girl “caw” echoes in the background: TOM WAITS & COOL KEITH – Tom growls w/ some heavy drums & dark piano behind him
10) *** Kanye West raps, Lykke Li sings the chorus & Santogold drives one of the best beats on the album; great whipping drums & outer space electro-pop noises
11) funky party beat, reggae male vocals; should be played on Wild 94.9 maybe not KZSU
12) * George Clinton rasps some funk alongside Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na deep rhymes
13) *eclectic beat fits the M.I.A. mold; good song but doesn’t do anything M.I.A. hasn’t already done on her own
14) **tribal RJD2; real mixed up with scratching & sound bytes; some Portuguese rhymes; ends with 20sec left
15) **Smooth flow on the rhymes, some scratching, upbeat with whipping snare drums
16) I like the Cool Kids’ style so I like this song but it won’t make your jaw drop
17) **15 min song is really 2 songs, the first lasting 4:20 mins w/o collaborations; communal chorus, tribal percussion w/ fluttery piano/flutes; use it for an upbeat background song!
a. 2nd song starts 10:27 in – eastern influence, more chilled out than the rest of the songs and well worth it! Give it an audition; stops w/ :20s left