Tune of the Week: NASA Project

Electronic music has taken a lot of evolutionary steps from instutional experimentation to festival music. in the beginning, synthesizers were large devices taking up entire rooms and so expensive that only places like universities could afford them. By the early 90s sampling keyboards, synthesizers and drum machines became more affordable and bedroom producers became more common. Along with the increased access came increased experimentation and more genres.

The rave scene, which began in the late 80s, had always relied on these independent producers and labels to help fuel the fires of all night partying. Fun was the name of the game with artists sampling and looping children’s TV show themes, commericals and movie samples and set them against breakbeats and swirling synths. Dallas, TX based group NASA Project went a step further and sampled and looped rave records to make the monstrosity known as “Textacy”. This production method along with the b-boy themed artwork show a strong connection with another electronic music genre making leaps and bounds at a similar time: Hiphop. After a wave to lawsuits in which artists had been forced to pay thousands of dollars in royalties to artists that they sampled, hiphop producers turned to their own genre for samples. Whereas this was more of a financial decision in hiphop’s case, NASA Project turns the self-referential methodology into a something of a funhouse experience where everywhere you turn there is another big tune reference to drink up. Give it to ‘em!