Last night I had the absolute honor of watching the new Apollo 11 moon mission movie composed of newly discovered footage from National archives along with previously existing footage. The content was expertly compiled into a riveting and breathtaking feature film, 100% authentic and free from Hollywood bombast and special effects. It was absolutely stunning.
And all throughout the film, I couldn’t help but grin like a child each time I heard voice samples from Mission Control, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Nixon’s legendary phone call to the astronauts all instantly recognizable from the countless downtempo/electronic/ambient techno albums which borrowed heavily from these classic archival recordings.
Among them, I recognized samples from:
- Coldcut’s “Outer Planetary Mix” remix of “The Guitar” by They Might Be Giants
- The Orb – (much of the Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld LP)
- Public Service Broadcasting – The Race for Space LP (featuring Sputnik 1, the Apollo 1 fire, and the Vostok 1, Voskhod 2, Vostok 6, Apollo 8, Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions)
- and Lemon Jelly’s beautiful “Spacewalk” from their classic Lost Horizons LP.
If I’ve missed any other classics, please let me know!
In celebration of the incredible spirit and inspiration of the new film, I’m spinning Time Life’s NASA: To The Moon 6LP archival vinyl box set issued in 1969.
If you haven’t seen the film yet – I highly recommend it!
And for more NASA vinyl beauty, don’t miss this entry for the 40th Anniversary Voyager Golden Record Box Set!
The Innerspace Connection 
“free from Hollywood bombast”
Indeed. Reality doesn’t need to be artificially augmented to be interesting.