VARIOUS ARTISTS
Ninja Tune XX: 20 Years Of Beats And Pieces
ZEN160X
Ninja Tune 2010
101 Tracks. 486mins00secs

It is probably not a coincidence that two of the major UK labels to have emerged from the rave era, Warp and Ninja Tune, are celebrating their twentieth anniversary within less than a year, testament that, if for many only a fleeting movement, it proved, for the most dedicated and visionary artists and labels, the most perfect of launchpads. Following last year’s Warp celebrations, it is now the turn of Ninja Tune to reach this milestone and look back upon its defining years.

Founded by Coldcut’s Matt Black and Jon More in 1990, the label rapidly established a solid roster around the likes of DJ Food, Kid Koala, The Herbaliser, DJ Vadim, The Cinematic Orchestra or Amon Tobin. While shaping the post rave electronic landscape, the paths followed by Warp and Ninja Tune rapidly diverged. The former remained close to the blend of acid house, Detroit techno and industrial ethic which had shaped its early years, Ninja Tune opted for a resolutely more eclectic sound, incorporating heavy doses of hip-hop and drum’n’bass into its expanding catalogue. Since, this has extended in many more directions, and the label has spawned a number of sister labels (the now defunct Ntone, which operated between 1997 and 2001, the positively alive and kicking hip-hop centric Big Dada, active since 1997, which housed a Mercury Prize winner with Speech Debelle last year, and the more recent rock-focused Counter Records). For its twentieth anniversary, Ninja Tune have collected an impressive number of exclusive tracks and remixes into a superb limited edition 6-CD box set, which also contains a handful of totally exclusive seven inches. There are also two double CDs available, containing part of the selection from the box set, and a book to complete the package.

The guest list for this set of celebratory releases is nothing short of impressive, encompassing everything and everyone from staple artists (Coldcut, Amon Tobin,  DJ Food, Roots Manuva, Hexstatic, Jaga Jazzist, DJ Vadim, Daedelus, The Herbaliser, Mr Scruff, Bonobo, Wagon Christ, Fink) to more recent addition (Grasscut, Speech Debelle, Eskmo, The Bug, Antipop Consortium, The Death Set) to name just a fraction, and this list is further enriched by the sheer number of remixes from both in-house artists and external contributors. Amongst those can be spotted the likes of Four Tet, Hot Chip, Prefuse 73, 808 State, Autechre, Flying Lotus, Tom Middleton, Rustie, Metronomy, Scuba, Mark Pritchard and Tunng. Instead of opting for some chronological or stylistic order, the compilers went for general trends in moods, loosely arranging titles so the tone of a section never settles for long, creating an interesting ebb and flow of varied beats and sounds, while also alternating between vocal and instrumental tracks. Predictably, there is quite a strong emphasis on hip-hop infused beats and grooves, but this is punctuated by more delicate moments, at times rather soulful (highlights include Emika’s Double Edge, Flying Lotus’s remix of Andreya Triana’s Lost Where I Belong, Bonobo’s Sun Will Rise with Speech Debelle or the truly superb Tomorrow by  Jono McCleery and Post Suite by Floating Points Ensemble), at others lush and electronic (Diplo’s remix of his own Summer’s Gonna Hurt You, Dan Le Sac’s bleepy feast remix of PRDCTV’s Metropolis, Amon Tobin’s haunting Lost & Found), or, more occasionally, pop-tinted (Grasscut’s Blink In The Night or the collaboration between Lou Rhodes and The Cinematic Orchestra on One Good Thing). This seemingly chaotic labyrinth of genres is actually somewhat very representative of how the label has functioned until now, seemingly driven not so much by any master plan as by a true determination to release anything that catches the ear of the Ninja crew.

With such a far-reaching selection both in size and scope, it is virtually impossible to isolate any particular track, and although there are a handful of Ninja classics amongst the selection, it is clear that presenting a simple retrospective was never in the intention of the label with these releases. Instead, Ninja Tune XX, either in its double CD configuration or full box set extent, collects an incredibly vast array of previously unreleased material, some of which having possibly been lying unheard for years, others entirely new and specially commissioned for the event, and spanning, in the case of the box set, over eight hours of music.

Also included in the box set is a hard back version of Stevie Chick’s book Ninja Tune: 20 Years Of Beats And Pieces, a paperback version of which is available to buy separately. The book retraces the history of the label through am impressive collection of photos, promotional material, record covers and memorabilia, lavishly presented and articulated around a series of chapters retracing the rise of the label, the influence of DJs and of Coldcut’s infamous Solid Steel sessions, the birth of Big Dada and how the label has continued to evolve, together with a selection of twenty one classic albums, ranging from Funki Porcini’s Hed Phone Sex (1995), Amon Tobin’s Permutation (1998) and DJ Vadim’s USSR: Life From The Other Side (1999) to cLOUDDEAD’s seminal self-titled album (2001), The Bug’s London Zoo (2008) and Jaga Jazzist’s One-Armed Bandit, released earlier this year, making it a perfect companion to the music on offer.

5/5

Ninja Tune | Ninja Tune XX
Box Set: Amazon UK: CD US: CD Boomkat: CD
Ninja Tune XX Vol. 1: Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD Boomkat: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD
Ninja Tune XX Vol. 2: Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD
Ninja Tune XX Book: Amazon UK: BK US: BK
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KING MIDAS SOUND
Waiting For You
HDBCD003
Hyperdub Records 2009
13 Tracks. 47mins02secs

Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD

The newest alter ego of Kevin Martin, best known as The Bug, King Midas Sound, a collaboration with vocalist Roger Robinson, investigates a hazy, greasy dubstep which, while sharing a clear taste for gritty dub and rounded bass lines with The Bug, is in essence miles apart from its incendiary missiles. The pair have been working together for some time, with Robinson contributing to a number of Bug tracks over the years, but they are brought together by a very different motive here. Working on the close relationship between Martin’s deeply hypnotic atmospheric textures and Robinson’s smooth falsetto and measured delivery, King Midas Sound is a pretty tight and dense association, with a heavy narcotic-fuelled slant and sombre hues.

Following two EPs released in the last year, King Midas Sound’s long awaited debut album lands on Hyperbub just in time for the label’s fifth anniversary celebrations. On Waiting For You, Martin carves some pretty minimal soundscapes, shaken by deep reverberating bass lines, which, right from opening track Cool Out, provides a stark counterpoint to Robinson’s breathy vocals, not strictly speaking sung yet not exactly spoken either, floating in and out of the mix as if suspended in mid-air. With each new track, the claustrophobic aspect of the record is reinforced by Martin’s haunting sound structures, often resting on devastating bass lines and occasional ethereal elements crystallized around slow moving beats.

At times, Robinson’s voice is left pretty untouched, yet at others, it is dipped in strangely metallic reverbs (One Thing, Meltdown, I Man, Miles & Miles) or processed into the texture of the track (Dahlin), while, it is the deep tone of his ordinary spoken voice which is pressed onto Earth A Kill Ya or Sometimes. Adding to the chill is Dokkebi Q’s Kiki Hitomi, who blows an especially cold spell on Earth A Kill Ya and Goodbye Girl, and adds an almost angelic touch to Outer Space. Once again the voice is more than an element simply sitting on top of the soundtrack. As with that of Robinson, Martin integrates Hitomi’s voice into the fabric of his tracks to create an uncomfortably homogenous and fluid whole, where the human input, while in no way anecdotal, appears strangely amalgamated into the sonic process. Yet, despite this, there are undeniable streams of warmth radiating through the whole record, as repeat listens progressively reveal more of the hidden depth of Martin’s stunning soundscapes.

The two early King Midas Sound EPs gave some idea of pair’s universe, yet, developed on a much fuller scale here, it hits repeatedly hard throughout. Right from the opening moment of Cool Out to the dying shards of Miles & Miles, Kevin Martin creates an incredibly haunting and hypnotic soundtrack upon which Roger Robinson hangs expressive vocal parts. The result is an oddly emotional nocturnal record, with enough poignancy to give label mate Burial a run for his money. Expect to find this gem his on many end-of-year lists.

4.9/5

King Midas Sound (MySpace) | Hyperdub Records
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD

THE BUG
London Zoo
ZENCD 132
Ninja Tune 2008
12 Tracks. 57mins54secs

Kevin Martin is quite the musical chameleon, having played parts in the jazz-minded project God, the industrial hip-hop of Ice, and guess which genre he was producing as a collaborator with Techno Animal.  The one common thread between all of Martin’s creative phases has been a kind of abrasive-yet-cerebral hardcore.  Everything is sharp and overdriven, but the edges have more of an aesthetically tricky purpose than simply to boom out speakers for the sake of it.  For the past decade, The Bug has been Martin’s outlet for his forays into Jamaican styles, primarily focused on bizarre nightmare dub visions and violently political dancehall chant assaults.  The former dominated on 1997’s Tapping The Conversation, in which Martin (along with collaborator DJ Vadim) conceived of a new soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola’s paranoid masterpiece of claustrophobic deception, The Conversation.  It was a fitting backdrop for an introduction to the dark, heavy, and distorted dub rhythms from The Bug.  It was also a fantastic dubstep release, appearing roughly a decade before the genre would officially get its recognition.

And there’s the catch with London Zoo, what makes it different from past Bug releases.  Unlike Conversation, or 2003’s Pressure, in which Martin expanded to include a series of singers, toasters and MCs, in 2008, he is no longer the maverick out of the blue doing this.  This doesn’t mean he isn’t still damn good at it, but some of the cuts on Zoo sound as though, faced with a new nomenclature for the music he’s been making for a while now, Martin is feeling the pressure to conform to dubstep’s evermore-conservative genre restrictions.  Thankfully, he often rejects that impulse, be as it may that recent remix work for the likes of Ghislain Poirier (whose recent release is, in itself, a lesson in how loudness and in-your-face MCing can be a flatline snooze-fest) has positioned him more toward the dubstep mainstream.

Like Pressure with the volatile Politicians and Paedophiles, Zoo puts its angriest, most political foot forward.  As an MC for the event, Tippa Irie does a decent job listing his grievances – terrorism, hurricane Katrina, global poverty – though he doesn’t quite match the discombobulated diatribe from Daddy Freddy on Paedophiles.  The comparison between Zoo and Pressure is, perhaps, inevitable: there’s plenty on this album that bangs in all the right places, and often enough the lyrics are inspired and impassioned, but it’s just not quite the arresting blindside that Pressure was.  Maybe it’s the absence of Freddy and Wayne Lonesome, the most ferociously exciting voices on Pressure, or perhaps is just that The Bug isn’t the only one anymore.

The initial semi-let down having been covered, the music here is, by and large, fantastic.  Martin has lost none of his ability or sight, and Zoo’s cuts are consistently brooding, multi-tiered messes of light and dark.  Whether it’s the juxtaposition of scratchy ambient reverb and brick-heavy bass drums on Freak Freak, the album’s lone instrumental cut, or the snapping urban nightlight jungle supporting Roger Robinson (the only vocalist from Pressure to reprise his role) and his ethereal contemplations, Zoo doesn’t have a single dud track.  The crown jewel here is Warning, featuring Flowdan, the most energetic and enigmatic toaster here, with a limerick flow that wavers between a scratchy whisper and a powerful wail.  Warning’s machine gun beats and laser sirens are undercut every four bars by an earth-shattering bass hit, before dissolving into dominant mid frequencies again.  This is the kind of less-is-terrifying productions that The Bug excels at, and Warning is destined to haunt listeners long after the album ends.  Martin reaches further into the dark abyss with the closing track, Judgment, in which Ricky Ranking dispenses his own brand of supernatural justice.

To reiterate, London Zoo is an above-average release.  It feels wholly unfair to criticize something for being so ahead of the curve that, now that the curve has caught up, it no longer sounds as unearthly (see also: Boards of Canada’s The Campfire Headphase), so I’ll just throw that out there as an observation for the reader to take or leave.  Martin could continue making grade-A dark dub and dancehall, or he might pursue yet another direction.  Knowing his track record, a dark, distorted take on Swedish techno-pop would come out brilliant.

3.8/5

The Bug (MySpace) | Ninja Tune
Buy: CD | LP | iTunes

VARIOUS ARTISTS
You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts
ZENCD150
Ninja Tune 2008
50 Tracks. 224mins35secs

Ninja Tune have been going for an awful long time. Eighteen years in fact. Back at the outset, deep in the mists of time, when we were quite a bit younger than we are now (if we existed at all, that is), the Ninja crew were a bunch of cool fuckers. They rode in on the backs of the likes of DJ Food, Coldcut, Hex and co. Soon after the founding fathers came a second wave consisting of 9 Lazy 9, Funki Porcini, DJ Vadim and The Herbaliser. The early compilations – Funkjazztical Tricknology, Tone Tales From Tomorrow – were a lot of fun and contributed to a playful rebalancing of the rather-too-serious for its own good self-definition of trip-hop by Bristolian headliners (you know who I mean).

Later in the nineties and early noughties, fascinating leftfield luminaries such as Burnt Friedman, Chris Bowden, Roots Manuva and Jaga Jazzist hopped on the bus. But somewhere along the way the main stable seemed to get a bit hackneyed, those waggish ‘you are listening to a stereo recording’-type samples began to bring listeners out in hives and the Ninja Tune share price plummeted.

Had enough of the history lesson? Knew it all already? Fair enough, but all that’s the background to this three CD release which represents something of a lifting up of the proverbial carpet to see what strange mould outgrowths and unlikely furballs have accumulated in the shadows over the years. This is Ninja Tune taking the opportunity to open up the hoover bag and tell an alternate, arguably more interesting history than the one you’ve just read above (sorry!)

So how about The Cinematic Orchestra, DJ Shadow, cLOUDDEAD, Wiley, Amon Tobin, Spank Rock, Mr Scruff, Daedelus, Ty, Diplo, Homelife, Ghislain Poirier, The Bug? Occasionally, the likes of NMS intoning ‘the government have programmed your brain, it’s a brave new world’ begin to pall, but then along comes Mike Ladd to raise the bar again with the aptly titled Blah Blah. Likewise, Cinematic Orchestra’s Rites Of Spring feels too much like a tokenistic ‘oh look we even do free jazz blowouts’, but the downturn is quickly salved by the rather lovely backwards vocals and strings of Max & Harvey’s Thieves. Over a gargantuan, exhausting and probably over-extended fifty tracks and three hours, forty four minutes and thirty five seconds, we get taught a lesson, the gist of which is – Ninja Tune are a lot more varied, less cuddly, harsher and more in-yer-face than you and your wonky memory might have come to believe. On the evidence of this I’m loathe to disagree.

3.5/5

Ninja Tune
Buy: CD | iTunes