If North America South America’s (N.A.S.A.) music were a type of food, it would be Gumbo or Paella (not a stew because stew aint cool), mixing disparate flavors of different nations into a delicacy worth devouring en masse. N.A.S.A. is a musical duo of DJs Squeak E Clean and Ze Gonzalez (Zegon) and about FORTY other collaborators from nearly every corner of music. More a traveling musical circus than simply an “act” N.A.S.A., brings the brash and bizarre influences of Brazilian Baile Funk to life with a North American thump – a serious sensory overload; a spiced mélange of all musical flavors.

For their first album, N.A.S.A.’s collabo-cup runneth over, aligning themselves with everyone from David Byrne of the Talking Heads to the RZA to Tom Waits, Karen O, Sizzla, Kanye and Santi Gold (too many more to mention). And those are just the people they assembled for their first mission (debut album), The Spirit of Apollo (Anti/Epitaph), an album somehow weaves between spacey trip hop to dirty up-tempo baile funk to grimy rap seamlessly, a true musical mas(h)terpiece. N.A.S.A.’s collaborative spirit makes for a revolutionary sound, drawing from the collisions of various personalities rather than one DJ’s desire to mix and mash. N.A.S.A. music is like Baile Funk on steroids – it’s that “Baile Bonds” – hard-body from cover-to-cover and built by trained electro professionals to blast-off any party or personal paradise.

N.A.S.A. recently blasted off a party @ Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, working the crowd into a sweat-drenched frenzy. By the end, even the industry stooges playing the wall in back were sweating through their button-downs.

We have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of these guys…sometime real soon!

Words and photo by Jamie Newman