George Clinton once told me that he loved the Wu-Tang Clan (verbatim, ’04), though he might not have ever known he’d work with them, until the guys from N.A.S.A. put Dr. Funkenstein, RZA, Meth and O.D.B. (r.i.p.) on the same album. Okay, so they might not have been featured on the same tracks, but they both added to the musical ambrosia that is N.A.S.A. So at least I got to share a small tidbit of info about the N.A.S.A. album, that Squeak E Clean honestly had never heard, and seemed to make him happy (even though he said it took a while to even get George’s voice to warm for his track). Luckily, it was well worth it, “There’s a Party” featuring George Clinton is an epic cut of some old school funk, not of the Baile variety, but with the same communal spirit that underlies N.A.S.A.’s whole album. It is this musical collectivity that is the hallmark of the N.A.S.A. sound – a sound that plays more to their Baile Funk roots for live shows and mashing and weaving from all sorts of different genres for the album, providing a cool dynamic and furthering their musical intrigue.

NASA’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. Squeak and Zegon make music that defies any simple definition in genre, BUT if I had to label it, I’d call it: “Baile CRUNK.”

Words and Photos by Jamie Newman