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CMU Playlists
Playlist: Ninja Tune
By CMU Editorial | Published on Saturday 13 November 2010
Founded in 1990 by Matt Black and Jonathan More, aka Coldcut, Ninja Tune has since released endless amounts of brilliant electronic music, plus hip hop through its Big Dada offshoot and, more recently, rock through Counter Records. Having now grown into one of the UK’s most loved independent labels, the company has been celebrating its 20th anniversary in style all year.
The centrepiece of the celebrations was the limited edition Ninja Tune XX boxset, featuring six CDs and six seven-inch singles of music, much of it unreleased elsewhere, plus a hardback book chronicling the label’s history and more. Meanwhile, for those wanting a crash course in the label’s music, there’s King Cannibal’s fantastic ‘The Way Of The Ninja‘ mix CD, which staggeringly crams more than 250 tracks into 74 minutes.
With special Ninja Tune XX live shows having already taken place in Tokyo, Osaka, London, Warsaw, Lyon, New York, San Francisco, LA, Paris, Brussels, Istanbul and Berlin, this weekend attention turns back to the UK. Tonight the label will be screening some of the best music videos produced for its artists in the last two decades at the BFI Southbank in London, while tomorrow the likes of Coldcut, Mixmaster Mike, The Bug, DJ Food & DK, DJ Vadim, King Cannibal and more will be playing a show at the Motion Skate Park in Bristol.
Finally, The Cinematic Orchestra and Dorian Concept will be playing the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday with the London Metropolitan Orchestra, who will also perform some of Amon Tobin compositions.
For more info on all Ninja Tune XX goings on, head over to www.ninjatunexx.com
With the anniversary year now rapidly drawing to an end, we asked some of the staff at Ninja Tune to pick their favourite tracks from the label’s back catalogue for a Powers Of Ten playlist. Their choices show perfectly what an eclectic label it is, and what high standards of quality it demands. Also, I think it’s safe to say that Roots Manuva’s quite a popular man around there.
THE NINJA TUNE TEN
Click here to listen to the Ninja Tune playlist in Spotify, and then read on to find out more about his selections.
01 Gamma feat Defesis – Slang Teacher
Will Ashon (Big Dada founder): A lost classic from the Big Dada archive. BD veteran Juice Aleem brought his group Gamma to the label and then they brought Shadowless associate Defesis onto this track. It’s a source of continuing regret that we never got a solo album from him. This is great, though – bubbling bass, ravetastic keyboard washes and weird cymbal hits, plus some of the best rap lyrics you’re going to hear – anywhere!
02 Yppah – Never Mess With Sunday
Laura Sykes (Digital Press): A brand new track of Ninja Tune’s, ‘Never Mess With Sunday’ was Yppah’s contribution to our 20th anniversary compilation released in September. Yppah is Joe Corrales, a Mexican-American from Texas who makes beautiful, beat-driven shoegazer-style music. ‘Never Mess With Sunday’ was my personal standout track on the compilation and will always remind me of Ninja’s 20th anniversary and all the hard work that went into making it happen. The designers that worked on our big London anniversary event chose this song to accompany the video they made of the night. I think it’s the perfect soundtrack to commemorate a momentous occasion – Yppah’s music is very nostalgia-inducing
03 Roots Manuva – Dreamy Days
Dean Bryce (Sync Manager/A&R): This is Roots Manuva at his best, getting deep and personal, providing us with quintessential lines such as: “Messing around with all these chemical rushes, when natural highs come a whole lot cheaper”. It’s essentially a record in the vein of Massive Attack and not the type of braggadocios hip hop that has come to dominate the UK rap scene. Manuva aligns himself with luminaries such as KRS One on ‘Friend’ and Jay-Z on ‘Song Cry’, proving that UK hip hop can have emotion. Above all it’s a really great track.
04 Jaga Jazzist – Toccata
Peter Quicke (Managing Director): A remarkable tune from a remarkable band, unlike anything else they have done, ‘Toccata’ sees Jaga expanding their sound even further. Genius!
05 The Death Set – Impossible (Shuttle Remix)
Simon Skevington (A&R): The mighty Death Set get the remix treatment by up coming US producer Shuttle. Majestic, trancey, driving grooves with a breakdown and drop that makes me wanna go smash stuff up! This was instrumental in us signing Shuttle to Ninja Tune. Must be played LOUD.
06 Roots Manuva – Tears
Jamie Collinson (Head of International/Big Dada Label Manager): Way back in 2001, this odd, infectious song pre-empted the move towards synths in hip hop, and featured compelling, fired up vocals from Rodney Smith. The chorus still has the power to shock. It shows both his singularity and his star appeal, and I never get tired of it.
07 cLOUDDEAD – Dead Dogs Two (Boards Of Canada Remix)
Leslie Madill (Marketing and PR Director, Ninja Tune North America): To me, cLOUDDEAD’s lyrics in this one centre on a (morbidly) curious and obtuse fascination with being fully notorious or revered, even at the expense of being torn to the most vulnerable and exposed parts (“I long to be dead / Centre of a curious crowd”… fame perhaps?). The original track is on the pop-side of cLOUDDEAD’s canon, and is met here with an even more swooping state of calm, with the sitars, flutes and whistles in BoC’s take countering and re-identifying the darkness of the lyrics – from being in the centre of chaos to the calm blue sky that surrounds the carnage. There is a natural crackle on the recorded track, but the crackle of hearing this song on vinyl is really just the best. Especially at the 2:09 mark.
08 Roots Manuva – Dub Styles (Micachu’s MATHES Remix)
Maddy Salvage (Marketing Coordinator): This is definitely my number one favourite remix on the Ninja Tune XX compilation, and there’s a lot of ridiculously good tracks on there. But this mix is something special; it’s minimal and understated, yet holds enormous depth. Micachu can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned.
09 Daedelus & Cyne – Drops
James Heather (Press & Promotions): This is a difficult choice! I have a soft spot for The Cinematic Orchestra, partly because whilst doing work experience at Ninja I did merch for them on tour. And likewise for Skalpel, which was the first album I promoted. But when Daedelus came along a year or two later he helped herald another great new era for Ninja Tune. He’s a highly progressive and multi-talented artist, with a real musicianship and unique sense of style, all whilst being the nicest man in electronica to boot. ‘Drops’ is one of my favourite tracks off his ‘Exquisite Corpse’ album, although I could have picked many. It’s also an album which, in my mind, acted as a precursor to the current popularity of West Coast electronic experimentation.
10 Roots Manuva – Witness (One Hope)
Jeff Waye (Head of Ninja Tune North America): Am I going to be the guy who gets all obvious and picks Roots Manuva’s ‘Witness’? Looks like I am. Which is rare given I’d normally be the asshole who picks the track we never released or something. What can you say… it’s still a guaranteed riot starter on the dancefloor, has one of the best videos we ever put out, and brings back memories of when ‘Run Come Save Me’ came out and we changed the error sound audio on our computers here to Rodney saying “un-uh” whenever the wrong key was pressed.
