Hip hop producers Squeak E Clean and DJ Zegon recruit CSS, Sizzla, Tom Waits, George Clinton and a cast of stars for their cross cultural project, N.A.S.A

Down a dusty alley, half a block away from the Hollywood 101 Freeway, lies a wooden bungalow. A typical suburban LA house, in a typical LA street, its sun faded exterior and shiny car are far from exceptional. However, contrary to appearances, this is far from a normal house. No, this is actually the headquarters of N.A.S.A.

Buzz Aldrin has never visited and George Bush has yet to be told of its existence, but, for the best part of five years, two men have worked tirelessly with an international team of world leaders to engineer a product that, they hope, will bolster artistic relations between North and South America. But the closest this branch of N.A.S.A gets to space exploration is when its inhabitants choose to dress up in orange astronaut suits and prance about in California’s hills for fun. The rest of the time they make beats, eat cookies and get baked.

“Welcome!” says N.A.S.A’s co-founder Sam Spiegel, opening the front door. “Do you want to come on a tour?”

No security tags? No cavity searches? No G Force training? Sweet.

Walking through the house, Sam points out an unbelievable stash of vintage synths, samplers and other random machines that go ping. A chirpy 27-year-old whose claim to fame thus far has been producing Yeah Yeah Yeahs Grammy nominated album Show Your Bones and the last known recording of Ol Dirty Bastard, Sam (aka Squeak E Clean) also happens to be the younger brother of Spike Jonze. His partner in N.A.S.A, DJ Zegon, is currently picking up supplies in his hometown of Sao Paulo, so it has fallen to Sam to explain what the hell is going on.

“N.A.S.A stands for North America South America,” he says, settling into a leather seat infront of a huge mixing desk. “Zeh and I met about six years ago and soon after that we came up with a concept for a record - we both wanted to work out a way of fusing together our favourite parts of North and South American music.”

They decided to produce a hip hop album that only sampled records from Brazil. But that wasn’t enough. In order to realise the full border breaking potential of the concept, Sam and Zeh approached artists that they felt could add different dimensions, both musically and socially. Now, half a decade later, over 40 of the world’s most respected artists have walked through the N.A.S.A portal and been paired with musicians from the opposite end of the musical universe. When the album is finally released next year you can expect to hear David Byrne and Seu Jorge mixing it up Z-Trip, Tom Waits kicking it with Kool Keith and Karen O getting flirty with Ol Dirty.

With the project drawing to close Sam is in the middle of finishing a track he began at Sizzla’s compound in Kingston with filthy mouthed Philly rapper Amanda Blank.

“Sizzla was the most intimidating person to work with because he’s such an intense dude. He’s the most focused person I’ve ever seen in a studio, ever. He sits down, gets a great melody idea and tries it out in five different voices. He picks the one it sounds best in, doubles it, then triples it. I’d say Amanda was a little nervous working with him at Judgement Yard – that’s his compound – but everyone we met there was friendly. Everyone from his neighbourhood came out and smoked ganja while he served up food. All that is missing from the track now is a verse from Lovefoxxx; she’s in town for a show and is coming around later to lay down some vocals.”

Squeezing in a recording session in the four hours between soundcheck and CSS’s performance at the Henry Fonda Theatre, the 23–year-old Brazilian indie pin up was under no illusion why she was asked to take part.

“When you think of young South American artists you only really think of Seu Jorge and Shakira. I guess Shakira was busy so Sam thought of me!” Lovefoxxx says with a giggle after completing the session. “I’m only kidding, it’s amazing to be involved in a project with so many amazing artists. I’ve never worked with any other producer outside of CSS. When I record with CSS it’s like I’m singing by myself because my producer is an old friend. I’m such a space cadet! It was quite hard to record next to Sizzla because in comparison my voice sounds like an empty plastic bag! And I’ve never heard anybody rap as fast as Amanda Blank! I’m very curious to see how Sam’s going to glue everything together. It’s going to be such a cool album.”

www.myspace.com/northamericasouthamerica

© TIM NOAKES 2007