King Cannibal – The Way of the Ninja

A back catalogue 20 years old is fertile ground for someone tasked with assembling a retrospective; given Ninja Tune’s history as an innovator in record mixing, it’s fitting a simple linear approach was avoided for The Way of the Ninja. DJ King Cannibal has cannibalised 256 songs and samples from the label’s canon, splicing, looping, cutting and pasting them into a nostalgic but forward-looking compendium.

The expansive tracklisting is available online, but fans will know precisely what to expect: classics such as DJ Vadim’s The Terrorist and Roots Manuva’s Witness the Fitness rub together with The Herbaliser, Mr Scruff, Wiley and Coldcut while breakbeat morphs into jungle, dub steps up, rap gets grimey, house becomes funky and jazz and soul is subverted into something fresh and new. Almost all of what is vital in British urban music is contained, catalogued and celebrated within: this is the way label compilations should be. [Euan Ferguson]