Ninja Tune

Ninja Tune
Founded	1990
Founder	Matt Black Jonathan More
Genre	Various
Country of origin	England, UK
Location	London
Official Website	ninjatune.net

Ninja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music. The label caters largely to artists who make Alternative Hip Hop, Instrumental music, Nu Jazz, Drum and Bass, Trip Hop and/or various forms of Downtempo music.

The label has developed a number of DJs, producers, and live acts. It has offices in Montreal and Los Angeles.

History

The label was founded in 1990. In 1994 Matt Black's close friend Mixmaster Morris introduced Matt to Openmind - a DJ & design collective in Camberwell - at the Telepathic Fish chill-out club they were running. Openmind included Kevin Foakes aka Strictly Kev of DJ Food. After submitting a re-styled company logo he was employed by Ninja Tune in the capacity of overall design consultant.^[1]

Pre-dating Ninja Tune is the radio show Solid Steel, which Coldcut set up in 1988. What initially began as a radio show on then pirate Kiss FM went on to become a weekly podcast and also the name of live nightclub events showcasing the talents of a number of Ninja Tune artists. Solid Steel is also the name of a series of DJ mix CDs from the label.

In 2010, Ninja Tune celebrated 20 years of releasing music. A book entitled Ninja Tune: 20 Years of Beats and Pieces was released on 12 August 2010, and an exhibition was held at Black Dog Publishing's Black Dog Space in London showcasing artwork, design and photography from the label's 20 year history. A compilation album was released on 20 September in two formats - a regular version consisting of two 2-disc volumes, and a limited edition (of 3,500 copies), containing 6 CDs, 6 7" vinyl singles, a hardback copy of the book, a poster and additional items.

Artists

9 Lazy 9 Airborn Audio Ammoncontact Amon Tobin Andreya Triana Animals on Wheels Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra Apple Blockhead Bonobo The Bug Chris Bowden Cabbageboy Chocolate Weasel The Cinematic Orchestra Clifford Gilberto Coldcut Bogus Order Euphoreal Gideon Cougar Daedelus The Death Set DELS DJ Food DJ Kentaro DJ Toolz Clusterfunk DJ Vadim DK Dorian Concept

The Dragons Dwight Trible Dynamic Syncopation DSP East Flatbush Project Emika Eskmo Fink Flanger Fog Floating Points Funki Porcini Ghislain Poirier Poirier Grasscut The Heavy The Herbaliser Hex Hexstatic Hint Homelife Igor Boxx Illuminati of Hedfunk The Irresistible Force Jade Jaga Jazzist Juice Aleem Kid Koala King Cannibal[2][3][4] Loka London Funk Allstars

The Long Lost Lorn Max & Harvey Mr. Scruff Neotropic Nonplace Urban Field NW1 & Born 2 B One Self Pest Please Producers for Bob The Qemists Raffertie Rainstick Orchestra Roots Manuva Shuttle Sixtoo Skalpel Slugabed Spank Rock Stateless Steinski and Mass Media Super Numeri The Poets of Rhythm T Love Toddla T Treva Whateva Ulanbator Up, Bustle and Out Wagon Christ Yppah Zero db

^[5]

Ninja Tune sub-labels

Ntone

Ninja Tune's first sister imprint was Ntone, a label specialising in experimental electronic music. The label released records from 1994 to 2001 before closing. Artists on the roster included Animals on Wheels, Cabbageboy, Hexstatic and Neotropic.

Big Dada

Experimental hip-hop label Big Dada was set up by Will Ashon in 1997. It is the home of acts such as cLOUDDEAD, Juice Aleem, Roots Manuva, DELS, Wiley and Spank Rock.

Counter Records

In 2006, Counter Records was set up to release the music by artists following a more rock music vein. The label's first release was (Super Numeri member) Pop Levi's single "Blue Honey" in September 2006, and was followed by Pop Levi's debut album The Return To Form Black Magick Party in February 2007. Subsequent artists to have releases on the label include Ape School, Cougar, cross-genre punk rockers The Death Set and The Heavy.

Ninja Tuna

In 2008 Mr. Scruff launched his own new sub-label, Ninja Tuna. The first release was Donkey Ride, a collaboration with Quantic, released in May 2008. This was followed by his 4th studio album, also entitled Ninja Tuna, and several further 12" singles to date.

Ninja Tune Compilations

• The Original Sampler (July 1993, BS001)
• Ninja Cuts Funkjazztical Tricknology (March 1995, ZENCD15)
• Ninja Cuts Flexistentialism (24 March 1996, ZENCD22)
• ColdKrushCuts - Mixed by Coldcut / DJ Food & DJ Krush (February 1997, ZENCD26)
• Ninja Cuts Funkungfusion (28 April 1998, ZENCD33)
• Zentonedada (sampler from Ninja Tune, Ntone and Big Dada) (1999, ZENTONEDADA 001)
• Xen Cuts / Xen Cuts Missed Flipped and Skipped (September 2000, ZENCD49, ZENCD49X, ZEN49)

A three-disc version of Xen Cuts was also released (ZENCD 049X) which included Xen Cuts Missed Flipped and Skipped.

• Solesides Greatest Bumps (31 October 2000)
• Urban Renewal Program (August 2002, ZENCD72)
• Zentertainment 2002 (August 2002, ZEN2002)
• ZENtvDVD - Video Retrospective (2003, DVD containing 2 hours of Ninja Tune videos, ZENDV85)
• ZEN CD - A Ninja Tune Retrospective (January 2004, ZENCD85)
• ZEN RMX - A Retrospective of Ninja Tune Remixes (January 2004, ZENCD85R)
• Zentertainment 2004 (March 2004, ZEN2004)
• Zentertainment 2006 (July 2006, ZENCD2006)
• You Don't Know: Ninja Cuts (March 2008)
• Ninja Tune XX Vols 1 & 2 (September 2010)

Former Employees

• Alastair Nicholson - Head of Legal Affairs
• J. Swinscoe - Head of Export Sales

References

1. ^ Xen Cuts booklet
2. ^ king-cannibal-joins-ninja-tune
3. ^ full-metal-ninja
4. ^ King Cannibal's MySpace
5. ^ "Ninja Tune - Artists". http://ninjatune.net/artists. Retrieved 2011-07-15. 

External links

• Official site
• Ninja Tune discography at Discogs
• Ninja Obsession
• Ping Pong Promotion agency of Ninja Tune in France.
• Ninja Tune Feature in Rip It Up Magazine
• Mafiagato's Ninja Obsession
• The Complete Digital Discography
• Discography at Rolldabeats.com
• Discography & Review at Djouls.com (Fr)
• Reviews by BBC
• Funki Porcini Interview at Freedom to Create 2010 (Phegon Blog)

See also

• List of record labels
• List of electronic music record labels
• List of independent UK record labels