20 Years of Beats 'n' Pieces: Ninja Tune Comes of Age

Doing any job for 20 years can be tough, but when you're known for innovation, there's an inherent problem: how can one be venerable and bleeding edge at the same time? As one half of Coldcut, Ninja Tune boss Matt Black was present at the first couplings of indie and dance (see his work on The Fall’s Extricate) and was the first to put beats down over classical music (with Beats ‘n’ Pieces back in '87).

Yet Black's also the first to admit that his label has come through changing times, their output not always being quite as vital as it could have been. “In the past we might have put out some beats with a nice loop over the top and let it run for 5 minutes,” he allows. “But I feel there's a lot more to the stuff we've been putting out recently. We're really lucky to be in the middle of a very exciting time for electronic music.”

Wary of being tarred with the chill out brush, this month they come out fighting with the 6 disc XX box set, containing a massive diversity of Ninja-affiliated artists like The Bug, Spank Rock and Bonobo – which more than proves their worth in a crowded electronic marketplace. It comes with a deluxe book which mixes up images in print in a unique way and contains 2 discs of remixes commissioned especially for the set from people who owe Ninja Tune a debt of inspiration, from Modeselektor right the way through to Tom Middleton.

It's also bags of fun to listen to, and – it would seem – to promote. “We launched it at a gallery in London with a multimedia event,” beams Black. “It was great to see all the sleeves and memorabilia displayed, and to touch base with all the Ninja cohorts. There's a feeling that rather than just a formality it's a genuine celebration of who we are, and it's an evolution for Ninja to do all this.”

Indeed, the vast line-up is a veritable who's who of current channels in electronic music. “That was a conscious decision not to do a kind of Greatest Hits, but instead a ‘Futurespective,’” he asserts. “A bunch of us had the same idea which not to dwell on – it’s much better to prove we're still mad, bad and dangerous to know. The music seems to go in cycles and at the moment with Fly Lo, dubstep, wonk... there's a new flood of ideas and the box set is a nice sampler of where dance music is at and where it’s headed.”

With Coldcut currently on hiatus, a lot of Black's time is spent seeking out new music and fortunately he doesn't have to look too far. “I've been doing an EU-funded project on renewable energy (Energy Union), taking an audio-visual set around Europe, so I've encountered a bunch of new people through that like Gold Panda, Blue Daisy... wherever you go there's a Ninja posse, they're passionate and international and ‘cos I don't actually buy too much music these days I rely on mates to feed me new stuff. It's all about good instincts and good antennae.”

All of this globetrotting has made Black realise how interconnected the scene has become. “Going around Europe, I realised that when Flying Lotus farts in LA, they hear it in Austria. And you guys are lucky where you are too, Numbers from Glasgow – I fucking love what they're doing, really mad tracks. A mate told me that at a Numbers night they dropped a Drexic track, like 10-15 years old electro, and all the kids knew it! So it’s been amazing, tracing how all these waves of connection travel through internationally. The great thing about the internet is that it links everyone in. People used to ask, 'How do you do it?' and the answer is just that – take what makes you who you are and manifest it in a way so that others take notice. The way to do that will be different for everyone and now we can see it all come out, whereas before these people would have been stopped at the door by the style police. That monopoly has largely been broken down.”

Without hesitation, there’s one particular name Black has on his lips as an artist he wished he signed to his respectable stealthy stable. “Flying Lotus. We share management with him, so he's kind of an honorary Ninja – the stuff he contributes to the box set is mind-blowing, breathtaking. I can’t get enough of his work.”

Amongst the many other delights from the set, Joe Goddard contributes a remix of Coldcut’s own This Island Earth from their 2006 album Sound Mirrors. Referring to their collaboration, I ask Black if he sees any affinities between Hot Chip and Coldcut. “Just the obvious one, that we're both music lovers who got lucky fucking around with sound.” Let that serve as a testament to both band and label.