Track Listings (17) - Disc #1| All Artists: Various Artists Title: Zen: a Ninja Tune Retrospective Members Wishing: 0 Total Copies: 0 Label: Ninja Tune Album Type: Import Genres: Dance & Electronic, Rap & Hip-Hop Styles: Ambient, Electronica, Big Beat, Trip-Hop Number of Discs: 2 SwapaCD Credits: 2 |
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Search - Various Artists :: Zen: a Ninja Tune Retrospective
 | Various Artists Zen: a Ninja Tune Retrospective Genres: Dance & Electronic, Rap & Hip-Hop
After 2000's incredible 3-disc set Xen Cuts, Zen delivers another journey into turntablism as only a label like Ninja Tune can provide. With such wildly creative artists spinning under their banner, it's no wonder the labe... more » |
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Amazon.com After 2000's incredible 3-disc set Xen Cuts, Zen delivers another journey into turntablism as only a label like Ninja Tune can provide. With such wildly creative artists spinning under their banner, it's no wonder the label loves a good compilation. Artists like Coldcut, Kid Koala, and The Herbalizer compose in their sleep, dreaming of wax like the rest of us do sheep. Zen focuses on those dreams, cherry-picking some of the more ambient breaks for a mix that hovers over the decks, like a ghost, sampled and spun along with the music. The tracks here are a bit overly-familiar; Amon Tobin's "Get Your Snack On," brilliant though it is, has been included on comps like this once too often already. Still, the 2-disc set has a plan: Disc 1 is the smooth one, the yin to Disc 2's yang, which cuts and scratches with more edge and "street" experimentalism. Sometimes, the smooth and the edgy tangle up, like Sarah Jones' eyes-wide-open rhyme in DJ Vadim's otherwise sleepy "Your Revolution." Those looking for an introduction to such turntable jumbles would do well to start here. --Matthew Cooke Similar CDs
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CD ReviewsShort changed R. Solomon | New Zealand | 11/01/2004 (3 out of 5 stars) "I never thought i'd pen something negative about Ninja Tune but I have some issues with this 'retrospective'. But before I get all annoying-pedantic-reviewer, let me clarify. The music on this compilation is fantastic. No qualms about it in the slightest. Ninja Tune has and continues to release some of the most interesting music around (i.e Fog, Sixtoo, Coldcut)and through the Big Dada label. If you don't know anything about this label then this is a good place to start. However if you've got an interest in this label, even half-hearted then this retrospective compilation may come as a dissapointment. These are my two issues. 1- The track selection. At least 6 of the tracks on this album can be found on three other ninja tune compliations: Funkjazztical, Flexistentialism and Funkungfusion, all great compilations in their own right. BUT I feel short chaged, pulling tunes of already on compliations when there's such a great ninja catalogue, come on. I mean this label is renowned for its selections, its diversity etc...I just don't think they've done justice to their history.Which leads me to the second criticism. 2- Artist representation: No Cujo, Roots Manuva, DJ Krush, Fog, Flanger etc...Where are these names??? What about the Big Dada stuff, where is it? Maybe I'm being an anally retentive prick who should have looked at the track listing before I spent New Zealand $49 on a CD. But the fact of the matter is I think they didn't put much thought into this retrospective. Aside from the fact that any retrospective is going to be contentious and problematic, I feel Ninja Tune chose an easy way out with this CD. Retrospectives are like those 'greatest hits' albums that always miss that KEY tune YOU thought was the greatest/ most under appreciated. They've always got problems but not getting tracks of other compliations, missing out a huge variety of artists and having two or three songs from the same albums....come one guys you can do much better than this." Inspecting the Past clove_112 | Canada | 05/14/2004 (5 out of 5 stars) "So after defining itself as one of the preeminent electronic music labels of the past 10 years, Ninja Tune has now felt compelled to release a compilation that reads as an aural history of its best moments. And they are here, ranging from the bedlam compositions of Coldcut ("Atomic Moog 2000") to the stilted breakbeat funk of Luke Vibert ("Get Your Head Down"). These are some of the label's most accessible tracks, packaged here in a handy set that you can put on and not worry about any filler getting in the way of your next dance function. Check out Mr. Scruff's "Sweetsmoke", a swerving stop-start beat replete with 80s-inflected pop horn samples - if your mates aren't getting down to this, they're spending too much time checking out your silverware. Also nice is the inclusion of a Bonobo track, "Pickup", which gives the jazz headz their fill of fluted bluntedness. If you grab this, and you're a completist like me, you'll also want to get the companion DVD and remix collection as well." Alarming lack of reviews for this one... Tim Fawcett | Nagano, Japan | 04/02/2004 (5 out of 5 stars) "so feel obliged to add one. Very tight and imaginative electonica and breaks; the finest of the ninja tune label on two tidy cd`s. If you`re even reading this then there`s bound to be something on here that you like and you`ve never heard anything like before. Genres get annhilatled and blended to perfection with none of the patchy lack of quality that you`d expect from such an ambitious compilation. This is very strong make no doubt about it. The feeling for me is that of a very groovy party, the kind where every tune interests but few are familiar. Play this when your mates are round and sit back while they admire your good taste!"
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