Various Artists
Xen Cuts
Ninja Tune

Happy 10th, Ninja Tune.

As the UK's premier producer and vendor of intelligent electronic jazz/funk groove sessions, Ninja Tune has been responsible for working with artists like Amon Tobin, Luke Vibert, DJ Krush, Coldcut and the DJ Food collective to pump out some of the best-produced, strangest and funkiest mixes known to man.

Ninja Tune tracks are a comprehensive menu of cool, using deadly mixing skills to blend ingredients like spoken word, beatboxing, electro-funk, dub, hip-hop samples, classic jazz breaks and scratching into a furious electronic goulash of sound.

There's something eminently respectable about Ninja Tune's volatile formula, which may be most closely approximated in the mainstream by the Beastie Boys' deliciously flexible Hello Nasty. When artists like Coldcut and DJ Food whip irresistible beats together with samples from classic movies, old school Brooklyn rap and artists like the London Funk Allstars, it always seems to work, and the resulting sound is hypnotic, crisp and distinct.

Xen Cuts is a three-disc set, and it's a jaw-droppingly diverse sampler of Ninja Tune's history as a label, mixing up bits of back catalog stuff with fresh cuts minted for the set. Acts including The Herbaliser, Amon Tobin, Kid Koala and Funki Porcini throw down electronic and acoustic elements that mesh seamlessly and skillfully, evolving enough from track to track that the set never becomes tiresome or played out. Its first disc concentrates more heavily on hip-hop, while the remaining albums kick up a dense cloud of Latin beats, unstoppable funk and hipster miscellany.

And while all three discs are strong and listenable, certain tracks stand out. Saul Williams, with "Twice the First Time," combines strings, spoken word and hip-hop in an unforgettable manner — when the strings go to pizzacato and the sound fills out, it becomes an irresistably strange and dancey mix.

DJ Food takes a poetic and fairly disturbing bit of spoken word by Ken Nordine to craft "The Ageing Young Rebel," a self-consciously hip bit of techno ephemera that no listener should pass up.

And Hexstatic's bizarre "Ninja Tune" takes scratching, an insidiously seductive beat, chop-socky kung-fu samples and Asian chords to weave an inexplicably listenable track.

Ninja Tune fans owe it to their label to pick up this bountiful spread of phattening sound. As for Ninja Tune neophytes... Fans of hip-hop, funk and techno who have yet to yet to discover Britain's freshest funk merchants should be legally compelled to give Xen Cuts a try — it's broad enough to satisfy the crowd, but sharp enough to make educated heads spin.

— James Norton (jrnorton@flakmag.com)