Customer Reviews

Ninja Cuts: Flexistentialism

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WOW! This album is FUNKY! Ninja Tune is a pioneer for various trip-hop artists, and this compilation is a great introduction to the wide range of sounds produced by this company. Some of these tracks are quite slow and jazzy, while some of them exhibit some excellent DnB specimens. Yet others just give you that great, slow, rolling, fat funk! All of them show off out-of-this-world production values. Expect to hear all sorts of sounds, samples, scratches.

Some tracks I recommend are:

"Shakatakadoodub" has a relentless beat that drives the energy forward. Not as funky as the other tracks, but certainly worth a listen.

"Junkies Bad Trip" is funky. Period. Guitar, brass, bass, drums. What more do you need, really?

"London Mind State" is mellow, and chill. Smooth.

"Spoonful Of Slow" is another deeply chill track. Has this slow, dragging beat. The chords are just so sexy.

"Spiral" is a more abrasive breakbeat track. Very energetic.

"Scratchy Noise" is so funky, with a beat so strong, and a bassline so groovy, the track will make you smile because it just sounds so damn good!

"Turn Me Loose" is a moderately-paced breakbeat track, yet the sound is just so chill and mellow.

"Scratch Yer Hed" ventures into some abrasive and loud DnB territory. The rhythm is complex, and it's sort of hard to follow, but in the middle, it does break into a nice, slow funky stretch.

If you like Ninja Tune, you will no doubt love this album. If you like trip-hop or even hip-hop, you will appreciate the album's repect for the funkiest sounds. If you like breakbeat in general, you'll find it all here. Don't like hip-hop? Well, there's stuff in here for those of you who like jazz. Get this album! It gives you two awesome disks of funky stuff for the price of one!

What's amazing about this collection of early Ninja Tune cuts is how well it holds up even today. Fact is, it was ahead of its time 10 years ago, and I still get asked who the artists are.

At the time, the "Blow Your Headphones", "Hed Phone Sex", etc. LPs weren't getting quite the PR they wanted, and this was a perfect way for 9 Lazy 9, Herbalizer, Funki Porcini, and the lot of them to reach a wider audience.

The Beastie Boys have recently released "The Mix-Up", which is basically Ninja Tune-lite. It's not offensive, but for the real stuff, you should check this out. Significantly more bang for the buck, in any event.

The music on the Ninja Cuts:Flexistentalism is great except for the fact that 5 songs CD1 skip badly.I haven't bothered to listen to CD2.The jewel case is cracked badly.The condition of the CD was supposed to be very good.I would like to return it but I haven't been able to log on to the Independent Records website displayed on Amazon.Com. Jon W.