Ninja Cuts - Funkjazztical Tricknology

If you ever want to understand why the phrase “trip hop” might actually have once seemed like a good idea, go here. Remember, that in its early days, Ninja Tune had emerged from a fundamentally psychedelic milieu: peak rave era backroom and squat parties like the Telepathic Fish all dayers where Kev “DJ Food” Foakes and Mira Calix cut their teeth alongside Ninja Tune founders Coldcut and the likes of Aphex Twin and Mixmaster Morris in extremely lysergic environments. But the hip hop part of the equation was deadly serious too: Coldcut were true UK pioneers of cutting, scratching and beat collage, and the beats you here here are not the lazy loops that would become cliche later in the 90s, but directly inspired by Pete Rock, DJ Premier, RZA and co. Across this compilation Up, Bustle & Out add African and Latin percussion and field recordings, The Herbaliser some deft film samples, Kruder & Dorfmeister some hypnotic synths, and Coldcut themselves flip a Flora Purim sample into dancefloor dynamite. Most importantly of all, it is programmed perfectly, with Funki Porcini’s “Long Road” provideing the perfect ending, dissipating like an exhalation of smoke at the end of a long night — this is not just a snapshot of a time, it is a truly great album.